Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
Sporadic hostilities continued after US and UK forces ended four nights of attacks on targets in Iraq under Operation Desert Fox.
On 28 December, the US Air Force attacked an SA-3 surface-to-air missile (SAM) site near Mosul which it says fired on aircraft enforcing the no-fly zone over northern Iraq. A further attack occurred on 30 December, when RAF aircraft were fired upon with SA-6s during during a patrol of the Iraqi Southern no-fly zone. USAF F-16s retaliated.
The first incident occurred less than 10 days after the USA halted Operation Desert Fox, saying that all the objectives had been achieved. During the 70h operation, almost 100 targets were attacked, more than 650 strike and strike support missions were flown by over 300 US and UK aircraft, and more than 415 cruise missiles were launched.
Damage assessment is still under way, but the US Department of Defense (DoD) believes that it has set back Iraq's programme to develop long-range ballistic missiles by "at least a year." Targets included sites associated with the development, production, protection and delivery of weapons of mass destruction.
One principal site is believed to have been the Ibn al Haitham facility north west of Baghdad where Iraq makes short-range weapons.
After being largely sidelined in 1991's Operation Desert Storm, because of its inability to perform precision night strikes, US naval aviation shouldered most of the combat load. The US Navy and Marine Corps, and principally the 70 aircraft on the USS Enterprise, flew over 50% of the sorties.
The Navy's Grumman F-14 had its debut in the strike role, carrying the LANTIRN targeting pod and laser-guided bombs. USN and USMC Boeing F/A-18s, equipped with the Nite Hawk targeting pod, also dropped laser-guided bombs. The Navy's newest munitions, the Joint Stand-Off Weapon and the Stand-Off Land Attack Missile - Expended Response, were available, but were not used.
The US Air Force's major contribution was the release of over 90 AGM-86C conventional air-launched cruise missiles, including the first Block 1 weapons with larger warhead and increased accuracy, by 15Boeing B-52s based at Diego Garcia. Desert Fox saw the combat debut of the USAF's Rockwell B-1B, six of which were based in Oman and used to drop 225kg (500lb) bombs.
As the USAF's Grumman EF-111 tactical jamming aircraft have been retired since Desert Storm, Desert Fox saw the first use of Navy Grumman EA-6Bs to provide protection for joint strike packages, including those involving the B-1s.
Some 12 Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado GR1s, based in Kuwait, flew 28 sorties, carrying TIALD targeting pods and Paveway II and III laser-guided bombs. The principal target was an airbase at Talil, where Iraq is allegedly converting Aero L-29 jet trainers to unmanned air vehicles capable of spraying biological or chemical agents. The Tornados attacked maintenance hangars where conversion of the aircraft was under way. At least three aircraft had been deployed to sites around Iraq during an earlier confrontation with the USA and the UK.
In addition to sites related to missile development, the USA says it also targeted helicopter gunships used by Iraq to suppress domestic unrest. Some of these were dispersed before the attacks began, and additional Tomahawk cruise-missile launches were ordered once the hiding places were discovered.
Operation Desert Fox was launched on 16 December after United Nations' weapons inspectors reported that Iraq was not co-operating as promised when the USA called off an attack at the last minute on 15 November. The plan involved only those aircraft already in place for Operation Southern Watch, enforcing the no-fly zone over southern Iraq.
More forces were despatched to the Gulf, the carrier USS Vinson arriving in time to conduct strikes on the last night of Desert Fox, but, by late December, the USA had withdrawn the USS Enterprise, 12 of the B-52s and all six B-1s, as well as 10 Fairchild A-10s and 10 McDonnell Douglas KC-10s. Forces required to police the no-fly zones remained in place.
Source: Flight International
