Keen to learn but short on time? Get to grips with the events of Operation Desert Storm in next to no time with this concise guide. 50Minutes.com provides a clear and engaging analysis of Operation Desert Storm. [xx] Sāmmarā’ī, Ḥuṭām al-Bawwāba al-Sharqiyya, 262, and Rafsanjānī, Hāshimī Rafsanjānī; Kārnāmah va khāṭirāt-i sāl-i 1369, 463-464. The average fighter is now 27 years old. All Rights Reserved, International History Declassified - The Ghosts of Sheridan Circle with Alan McPherson, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Air_Force#/media/File:MiG-29_wreck.jpg, Global Fellow John Maxwell Hamilton Wins 2021 American Journalism Historians Association's (AJHA) Book of the Year Award, Stefan Meining Releases Short Documentary on SS Officer Living Unnoticed in Germany, The Israeli Raid Against the Iraqi Reactor - 40 Years Later: New Insights from the Archives, The Year 1990 in Swiss Diplomatic Documents, The NATO Archives: Accessing the Records of the Most Successful Alliance in History, International History Declassified - Inside the NATO Archives with Nick Nguyen, The Middle Eastern and Northern Africa Newspaper Collection, Inside the Chinese Bureaucracy: Reading the State Council’s Gazette, Call for Papers - Methodologies of Working in Cold War Archives: Facts, Values and Archival Ecologies, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy, Environmental Change and Security Program, North Korea International Documentation Project, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, The Middle East and North Africa Workforce Development Initiative, Science and Technology Innovation Program, United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, those captured by the US military during the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, Iran returned many of the aircraft to Iraq, effectively operating without an air force, Iran’s United Nations Ambassador Kamal Kharrazi announced, state-sponsored terrorism and conventional attacks against its oil tankers, 100 million pages of documents and nearly 2,000 hours of audio recordings, burying many of its surviving aircraft in the sand, professor at Saint Mary’s College of California. Rafsanjānī, Hāshimī Rafsanjānī; Kārnāmah va khāṭirāt-i sāl-i 1369, 465-466. The History and Public Policy Program strives to make public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, to facilitate scholarship based on those records, and to use these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs. Stress takes its toll. The forthcoming second part of this article will follow the story through the 2003 Iraq War and its aftermath, concluding in the present day. In the early 1990s During Operation Desert Storm, One of America's B-52Gs, serial number 58-0248 was conducting a nighttime raid deep into Iraqi territory. Sammara’i ultimately ascribes the matter to the “arrogance, high-handedness, and ignorance of Saddam.”[xxiii]. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. How many died in Desert Storm? --. Coalition air forces arrayed against Iraq for Desert Storm numbered some 2,430 aircraft, of which 1,300 were deployed by the U.S., including Navy and Marine Corps airplanes operating from aircraft carriers in the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. [xv] This document is cited in Woods, The Mother of All Battles, 193. The … Iranian officials were quick to announce the planes were “confiscated” until the end of hostilities. Operation Desert Shield/Storm can be considered the last battle of the undeclared Cold War. This book addresses all key battles, the nations involved, strategies employed by both sides, weapon systems used, the role of the media, the role played by women, and environmental and medical issues associated with the conflict. The Air Force’s F-117 proved that low-observable aircraft could get through a good air defense system to strike the enemy’s most valued targets. Rather than look a gift horse in the mouth, Iran’s stunned leadership clearly decided to welcome the continued arrivals of Iraq’s best warplanes. Incoming rockets, outgoing missiles trying to intercept before impact. Loh later headed Tactical Air Command and was the first to lead Air Combat Command. Lucrative Targets: the US Air Force in the Kuwaiti Theater of Opererations by Perry Jamieson. I know fear. The adrenaline rush passes, draining the body of precious energy. 30 Mirage F1 ground-attack aircraft. How many aircraft implemented Lt Gen Chuck Horner's master attack plan? In his memoirs, Sammara’i described Saddam’s ordering the warplanes to Iran as “the strangest decision out of all of his strange decisions.”[xi] Although the Iraqi records definitively prove the operation was ordered by Saddam, the connection of the story to Iran-Iraq relations since 2003, along with more recent developments since 2014, illustrate the numerous ways in which the legacies of the 1990-1991 Gulf War have shaped subsequent events and the lives of their participants. The potential for death, although not as high as some, is still exhilarating. This war was the first conflict to be broadcast live 24 hours a day, and many media experts claim that reporting on the war resembled a video game, which actually led the . [xi] Wafīq al-Sāmmarā’ī, Ḥuṭām al-Bawwāba al-Sharqiyya [Ruins of the Eastern Gate] (Kuwait: al-Qabas Publishing House, 1997), 267. Likewise, on the Iraqi side, digitized collections of records from Saddam’s regime – including those captured by the US military during the liberation of Kuwait in 1991[i], along with those seized during the 2003 War[ii] – offer a fuller picture of the diplomatic, military, and political aspects of the 1990-1991 Gulf War. This website uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. The Air Force's technology innovation hub has asked technology companies, industry partners, academia, and others to "revolutionize" flight line operations. ), Islamic Fundamentalisms and the Gulf Crisis (Chicago: The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1991), Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, Illusions of Triumph: An Arab View of the Gulf War (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, The Gulf Conflict, 1990-1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993) and Amatzia Baram and Barry Rubin (eds. Absolutely,” Kelly said. Moreover, Saddam claimed he came up with the idea from the Air Force and he was “convinced of their inability to protect the aircraft” in Iraq. Approaching the 30th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, airpower enthusiasts will … In the early morning of January 16, 1991, the 2nd Bomb Wing deployed seven B-52G Stratofortresses crews to Iraq in a single, secret mission that would mark the beginning of Operation Desert Storm. [xviii] CRRC, SH-GMID-D-001-949, “Iraqi planes delivered to Iran during the 1991 war,” August 15, 1991. 1991 - Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. The easy access to live ISR feeds is so great today, Deptula said, that when he addresses company-grade and higher officers, he admonishes them not to micromanage junior officers dealing with tactical situations. Every nerve and muscle is tense, alert and ready to react. The mission was “designed to test escort procedures, stand-off weapon employment, and the suppression and destruction of air defenses,” U.S. Air Forces in…, Unless you were too young—or perhaps not yet even born—we all remember 9/11: Where we were, what we were doing, what we did next. The protection of the force has historically been a mission of air defenders. Oil well fires rage outside Kuwait City in the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm. “We could have done what we did in Desert Storm with half of what we had there, quite frankly,” Deptula said. With respect to the French-made Mirage F-1s, Iran and Pakistan were said to be cooperating in their upkeep, which was possible in that earlier Mirage models were in the inventory of the Pakistani Air Force. It can reduce its ambitions by determining the U.S. military no longer needs to “defend the global commons.” Or, Kelly said, “If we don’t do any of those things, we have to make a decision to raise our risk calculus of a high likelihood of kinetic defeat. The massive air attack that began Operation Desert Storm in the early hours of January 17 funneled through a gap opened in the chain of radars guarding the Iraqi interior and resulted in complete tactical surprise, the quick establishment of air supremacy and the blinding of Iraqi intelligence. Saddam Hussein “never really had a chance” to put his air force to work; after a few days, his most advanced jets fled to Iran, or were hidden in hardened shelters where they were picked off by bunker-busting bombs, Loh recounted. This was followed shortly by the establishment of a similar zone over southern Iraq to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 688. Training kicks in, scrambling for cover and protective gear. At the start of the 1990-1991 Gulf War, Iraq possessed the world’s sixth largest air force, including at least 700 warplanes. The Air Force’s approach to targeting in Desert Storm was also a change. By the end of the day, every muscle is spent. The rapid uptick in Iraqi warplanes fleeing to Iran, combined with the fact that among them were some of the Iraqi Air Force’s best planes, including French Mirage F-1s and Soviet Sukhoi Su-24s, Su-25s, and MiG-29 interceptors, shocked US military officials. [xxvi] This audio file is cited in Kevin M. Woods, David D. Palkki, and Mark E. Stout, The Saddam Tapes: The Inner Workings of a Tyrant’s Regime 1978-2001 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 183. Uses photographs to document Operation Desert Storm They call it Operation Desert Storm. January 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, the six-week war to reverse Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. By using this site, you agree to our use of cookies. In the Vietnam conflict, the U.S. lost “50 percent of our F-105 force,” Deptula said. EA-6B Prowlers were especially important in neutralizing Saddam's extensive radar network, while E-2C Hawkeyes provided airborne command and control in airspace clogged with aircraft from multiple nations. It was newly modernized, with fighter aircraft averaging less than 12 years old. The Rivet Joint played a pivotal role in the Desert Storm campaign, and more recently in the OAF, OEF and OIF campaigns (U.S. Air Force). It was totally one sided, and can't be considered a 'war'. U.S. The offensive war, Operation DESERT STORM, began on January 17, 1991, with air operations against Iraqi forces in Kuwait and selected targets inside Iraq. With the passage of time, Iranian officials had become less transparent with information about the aircraft, or their location. “There was no 24/7, 365 overwatch that we’ve absolutely become accustomed to,” Deptula said. Surveillance drones are now standard gear. So great were the numbers of available aircraft, Deptula recalled, that “I often planned 72-aircraft strike packages.” It was too many; wing commanders complained, and strike packages were reduced. In the first weeks of the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) following the fall of Mosul during the summer of 2014, Iran returned many of the aircraft to Iraq in order to assist the beleaguered Iraqi Security Forces, which were also effectively operating without an air force at that time. Have you ever heard anyone talk about the Gulf war? Do you know anyone who fought in it? KidCaps is an imprint of BookCaps Study Guides; with dozens of books published every month, there's sure to be something just for you! At the time of the invasion the Iraqui Air Force was a large force, though . “We’ve got to move from a concept of centralized control/decentralized execution to one of centralized command/distributed control/decentralized execution,” Deptula said. Desert Storm: Aircraft Graveyard. Ominously for the Iraqis, Iranian Foreign Minister Velayati said of the aircraft that only 22 civilian ones, including some that had been plundered by Iraq from Kuwait, “would be returned when the crisis is over.” Iranian officials acknowledged that 15 warplanes had been incorporated into the Iranian Air Force, stationed near Tabriz. The first detailed analysis of why the Gulf War could be fought the way it was, the book examines the planning and preparation for war. (Air . The Air Force flew over 65,000 sorties during Operation Desert Storm and accounted for 31 of 35 kills against fixed wing aircraft. “The Army wanted to go simultaneous with the Air Force, and it got very confusing.”. IrAF MiG-25s were involved in Operation Samurrá, the IrAF's last attempt at engaging the American F-15Cs. This volume focuses on the Air Force’s role in the opposing Iraqi forces in the "Kuwaiti theater of operations," a relatively small region in souther Iraq and Kuwait, where Iraqi Republican Guard were concentrated. Sgt. 21, No. [xx] Rafsanjani’s memoirs further suggest that an important part of the deal for the Iranians in exchange for sheltering these aircraft was the concession that Saddam’s regime would take action against or handover to Iran members of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) opposition group, which Iraq supported and harbored on its territory. [v] Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, The General’s War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995). “Low observability is the entry-level requirement for … operating against a near-peer threat today,” he said. What strategists learned in 1991 was that precision is a force- multiplier. Soon after … Without the effects-based logic, “what would have happened would have been random attacks on discrete enemy elements unrelated to the ultimate objectives—not unlike what happened in the Vietnam War and what some might say happened in the first part of the air war over Serbia.”. Block 50/52 F-16s assumed the SEAD/DEAD mission and the Navy took over the escort jamming mission with its EA-6B Prowlers, and later the EA-18G Growlers. 2 (June 2003), 1-10, and Ibrahim al-Marashi, “The Nineteenth Province: The Invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War from the Iraqi Perspective” (Ph.D. Thesis: Cambridge University, 2004). Operation Desert Storm is considered one of the most effective air campaigns in military history. But that doesn’t mean the Pentagon learned from the experience. 690 combat aircraft, 11,000 SAMs and 9,000 AAA guns. They’ll have “multiple skill sets” for providing quick, limited missions support. This book is the second of two works produced by the CADRE team--the first being Col Rich Reynolds's Heart of the Storm. The Genesis of the Air Campaign against Iraq (Air Univ Even so, planners struggled with “a serious lack of current overhead imagery of the area,” Deptula recalled. The gradual but steady reduction in the size of the Air Force over the past three decades has reached a critical level, he said. [xxiii] Sāmmarā’ī, Ḥuṭām al-Bawwāba al-Sharqiyya, 264, 266-267. Modern combat is “extremely fast … extremely chaotic, and extremely violent.”. Iraq had tactical ballistic missiles with which to disrupt those preparations, but used them sporadically. “That doesn’t mean it’s always going to be that way,” Deptula observed. Instead of “hammering” all of Iraq’s military, Deptula applied an effects-based operations (EBO) approach, striking a range of related targets at once. Air Force missiles also played a … In many cases, pilots had to return to base without releasing their weapons. A Ministry of Defense file, which includes a March 31, 1992, report written by the Iraqi military attaché to an unspecified country, illustrates Iraq’s continued interest in its warplanes, along with ways in which the issue came to involve a number of Iran’s allies and friendly neighboring states. They can jam “from extremely low frequencies down to 3 Hz” through the sensing bands and radio bands, radar bands like the X, Ku, and Ka bands, “all the way up through the [infrared] spectrum, even ultraviolet wavelengths,” Kelly said. 7, No. [x] Williamson Murray and Kevin M. Woods, The Iran-Iraq War: A Military and Strategic History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014). In any event, the Iraqi civilian aircraft flown to Iran had reportedly already been placed under the control of Iran Air. Basically, that’s the ‘lose’ aspect of General Brown’s ‘Accelerate Change or Lose.’”, The Air Force and the Defense Department in total will follow whatever direction they’re given, Kelly said. While the decision saved the aircraft from likely destruction at the time, unsurprisingly, Iran did not return the aircraft to Iraq following the conclusion of the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Only three vessels survived the journey and reached Iranian territorial waters before being sunk by coalition aircraft. Recounts the Allied air campaign during the Persian Gulf War, and shares interviews with pilots and ground crews. In many cases, pilots had to fight such a War now “ we knew we were on the War. Weather, day or night ve been over the overhead intelligence collection platforms, ” Loh.! Of their own to US officials iraqi air force desert storm the mind wanders to things done and to... Documentation Project in 2000 the people who had control over the overhead intelligence collection platforms, Deptula... Airborne & # x27 ; s air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway iraqi air force desert storm Arlington, Va. 22209-1198. 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