PENTAGON officials say that they are "satisfied" with the success of the air and cruise-missile strikes carried out on 3 September in the southern Iraq no-fly zone, which followed Iraqi military action against Kurdish safe havens in the north.
Fourteen Hughes Tomahawk land-attack missiles (TLAMs) were fired from the destroyer USS Laboon and cruiser USS Shiloh in the Gulf. Two Boeing B-52Hs from the 2nd Bomb Wing were flown on a 34h round-trip mission from Guam to launch 13 Boeing AGM-86C conventional air-launched cruise missiles against 14 targets considered threats to the enforcement of the southern no-fly zone, which has been expanded.
A second phase of Operation Desert Strike was initiated because battle-damage assessments of initial attacks were inconclusive. The second launch of 17 TLAMs from three Navy surface warships were against four of the original targets.
Coalition aircraft, including US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16s and French Air Force Dassault Mirages, resumed their patrols. An F-16 was "painted" by a surface-to-air missile site, and attacked with a Texas Instruments high-speed anti-radiation missile.
Source: Flight International
