The first raid on the nuclear center in Al-Tuwaita took place in the afternoon, January 18, 1991. The raid was attended by 32 F-16C aircraft armed with conventional unguided bombs, accompanied by 16 F-15C fighters, four EF-111 jammers, eight F-4G radar hunters and 15 KS-135 air tankers.
- from the report of the commander of the Air Force of the multinational forces in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant General Chuck Norris Horner.
At that time, the "captains of heaven" failed to break through the dense anti-aircraft fire and hit the designated targets. The strategically important facility was destroyed the next night with F-117A aircraft and GBU-27 laser guided bombs.
F-16 as a tactical bomber. A formation of 75 aircraft, more than half of which are support and cover vehicles. And as a result of the efforts made, it was not enough - the Americans needed a second night raid with the use of "stealth".
Acquaintance with such facts can cause confusion. This contradicts the Pentagon's claims of a victorious blitzkrieg and the widespread belief that the war with Iraq was a conventional war with the Papuans.
Training is the key to success
Relatively low losses (the Yankees and their allies lost 75 aircraft for various reasons) and the absolute technical superiority of the victors over the vanquished did not make the war an easy walk. The victory over Iraq cost enormous costs for the countries participating in the anti-Iraqi coalition. First of all, for the US Air Force - the main character in the 43-day air offensive Operation Desert Storm.
2,600 combat and support aircraft. 116 thousand sorties in the conflict zone. Dozens of air bases in the Middle East, including civilian airports in the region from the UAE to Egypt, were filled with aircraft from all over the world.
55,000 American air force personnel were deployed to the region. In the shortest possible time, in the middle of the desert, 5,000 prefabricated residential buildings with a total area of 30 thousand square meters arose. meters. 16 airmobile hospitals with a capacity of 750 and 1250 beds were deployed. More than 160 thousand sq. meters of concrete pavement - on the eve of the big war, the Yankees were intensively engaged in the development of the infrastructure of airfields in the Middle East, expanding their area for basing a huge number of arriving aircraft.
F-111E fighter-bombers from the 77th squadron of the 20th wing were transferred from the Upper Hayford airbase to the Turkish base Inzhirlik in early August 1990. Almost simultaneously, the F-111F aircraft from the "brotherly" 493rd squadron flew from Leikinhirt to Zaragoza. Interestingly, the transfer of two squadrons of "semi-strategic" aircraft to NATO's forward airfields was motivated by conventional exercises.
In Saudi Arabia, the first 20 F-111Fs from the 492nd and 493rd Squadrons of the 48th Tactical Wing arrived on 25 August. The fighter-bombers performed a non-stop flight with several mid-air refuelings en route from Leykinhirt AFB to Typhe AFB. The aircraft flew with a combat load - each carried four GBU-15 2,000-pound guided bombs and two Sidewinder missiles, underwing containers for shooting IR traps and dipole reflectors, AN / ALQ-131 containers with electronic warfare equipment were attached to the rear of the fuselage … Twenty more F-111Fs flew to Saudi Arabia on September 2. The flight was carried out with suspended adjustable bombs and Sidewinder missiles. EF-111F electronic warfare aircraft were also based at the Typhoe airfield.
- Chronicle of "exercises" of the US Air Force in 1990.
Those who arrived at the scene did not sit idly by. The flight crew immediately began testing the technology in the desert. Intelligence monitored the state of enemy aircraft and air defense, highlighting possible options for making "corridors" in the Iraqi air defense system.
During the day, countless planes circled over the dunes. And when the sun disappeared behind the horizon, the desert shuddered again from the roar of aircraft engines - from the Saudi airbase. King Khalid, the black silhouettes of the stealths rose. The F-117A pilots brought their cars to the very border with Iraq, and, satisfied with the result, returned to the base by dawn. The Iraqi air defense did not react in any way to the presence of "invisible" - unlike conventional aircraft, whose appearance immediately raised the alarm (changing the operating modes of the radar, connecting additional stations).
The air offensive Operation Desert Storm began on the night of January 17, 1991. In the first week, the density of air strikes of the Coalition Air Force exceeded 1,000 sorties per day - every few hours deadly "waves" of bombers, accompanied by fighters and support aircraft, swept over Iraq. After that, scouts flew in and evaluated the results of the bombing. "Difficult targets" were knocked out with the help of "stealth" and SLCM "Tomahawk".
43 days of triumph of "aerocracy" of the USA and NATO countries. Iraq lost a significant part of its armed forces and was forced to leave Kuwait.
According to official statistics, their own losses from enemy fire amounted to 37 aircraft and 5 "turntables", of which only one F / A-18C fighter was shot down in aerial combat. The actual losses were probably higher. After the war, there was an increase in the number of decommissioned aircraft of the US Air Force - a direct consequence of combat and non-combat damage, resource depletion, and other unpleasant consequences of participation in hostilities.
In the cloudless sky of statistics
The US Air Force was able to deploy an air force against Iraq consisting of:
120 F-15C Eagle fighter-interceptors.
The main task of the Orlov was to achieve air superiority. In general, they coped with this task - the Iraqi combat aviation practically did not show activity throughout the entire war. In total, during the war with Iraq, F-15C fighters flew 5685 combat missions.
244 F-16 Fighting Falken fighter-bombers.
Winged "workers wars", 13 087 sorties in the conflict zone.
"Brigade" assembled
82 fighter-bombers F-111 "Anteater" (modifications 111E and 111F)
Tactical strike vehicles with a "semi-strategic" flight range. Perfect onboard sighting and navigation system. Combat load 14 tons. "Anteaters" had the best combat performance among all aircraft of the anti-Iraqi coalition air force (the ratio of successful sorties is 3: 1). A total of 2881 sorties were made over enemy territory. Statistically, the F-111F dropped 80% of its laser-guided bombs.
132 anti-tank attack aircraft A-10 "Thunderbolt"
Clumsy, but very tenacious "field workers" performed 8566 sorties in the conflict zone. "Thunderbolts" are considered leaders in the number of air-to-ground missiles fired AGM-65 Maverick (90% of all missiles of this type).
42 tactical stealth attack aircraft F-117A "Nighthawk"
Nighthawks flew 1,271 sorties in the conflict zone, dropping 2,000 tons of guided munitions on the heads of Iraqis. First-generation stealths were one of the US Air Force's "trump cards", on their account 40% of the destroyed priority targets: nuclear reactors in Al-Tuwaita, a 112-meter radio tower in Baghdad, a control center for interceptors and tactical missiles, air defense missile systems in Central Iraq (which allowed later to carry out carpet bombing using the B-52).
In general, the F-117A proved to be the most awkward, expensive and useless aircraft - a striking example of budget cut and common American stupidity. At least this is what the F-117A looks like in the eyes of most "specialists".
48 F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bombers
Operation Desert Storm was the baptism of fire for Strike Needles. The newest aircraft, equipped with the LANTIRN sighting and navigation system for supersonic breakthroughs at low altitude in the dark, were regularly used to search for and destroy enemy mobile missile launchers, primarily the Scud BR. The results of the combat use of the F-15E do not look very convincing - the Iraqi "Scuds" continued to fall on the heads of American soldiers and urban areas of Tel Aviv until the very end of the war.
66 strategic bombers B-52G "Stratofortress"
Carpet bombing is a costly but sometimes very effective way of waging war. Statistics work instead of ballistics. The accuracy of the bombing on a specific object does not matter - the bombs cover the entire area of the intended location of the target. The method is good against the accumulation of enemy troops in the absence of the enemy's long-range air defense systems. An additional bonus - such a bombardment has a very demoralizing effect on the enemy's army. In this way, 38% of American bombs (relative to their total mass) were dropped.
1620 sorties. One bomber was shot down. Another was heavily damaged by an AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile - the missile was launched from one of the F-4Gs flying behind and accidentally aimed at the radar station of the Stratofortress aft defensive installation.
61 "radar hunter" F-4G "Wild caresses"
Modification of the old "Phantom", designed to solve the problem of breaking through and suppressing the enemy air defense system. "Wild weasels" were used to escort strike groups, and also flew in the "free hunt" mode - 2683 sorties over Iraqi territory.
F-4G demonstrates a set of anti-radar missiles of different generations: AGM-45 Shrike, AGM-78 Standard-ARM, AGM-88 HARM and AGM-65 Mavrik air-to-surface missile
18 EF-111 Raven electronic countermeasures planes
"Insurance policy" for attack aircraft formations. The Raven's equipment made it possible to timely detect radio emission sources, "deceive" the homing heads of anti-aircraft missiles and launched air-to-air missiles, jam radio communications and "clog" enemy radar stations. The Ravens flew 1105 sorties.
Do not forget that many specialized vehicles operated as part of the air force, without which it is difficult to imagine any modern air operation:
- E-3 Sentry early warning and control aircraft (AWACS);
- photo reconnaissance RF-4C;
- high-altitude scouts U-2;
- electronic reconnaissance aircraft of the RC-135 family;
- aircraft electronic warfare EC-130;
- transport aircraft of the theater of war C-130 "Hercules", gunships AC-130 and aircraft of the Special Operations Forces MC-130;
And, of course, AIR FILLERS. Operation Desert Storm could not take place without tankers. Most of the sorties were carried out with a couple of refuelings - one in each direction. Not surprisingly, the Americans had to redeploy 256 Stratotankers and 46 Extenders to the Middle East to support the operation of the huge group!
According to dry statistics, US Air Force planes dropped 90% of all guided bombs, 55% of anti-radar missiles and 96% of air-to-ground missiles. It can be said bluntly - the American Air Force won the war. The involvement of all other allies and US Navy pilots is negligible.
Marine Corps Aviation
One of the curious features of the US military is the existence of the Marine Corps, a large, well-trained expeditionary force with its own armored forces and aircraft. Aviation KMP is a simplified version of the Air Force, whose aircraft are based on the same airfields, shoulder to shoulder with the "regular" F-15 and F-16. The main differences between the KMP aviation are uniforms and aircraft - the "marines" fly in lighter aircraft, unified with the carrier-based aircraft of the naval forces.
To support Operation Desert Storm, the command of the ILC allocated the following forces:
The F-111 can carry off all of these bombs in one go.
86 vertical takeoff and landing attack aircraft AV-8B "Harrier II"
Exotic cars, which are the "calling card" of the ILC aviation. Some of the aircraft operated from the Tarawa and Nassau universal amphibious assault ships. The rest flew from the shore. In total, they made 3359 sorties.
In general, the role of the Harriers in Operation Desert Storm was symbolic. The planes were hovering over the leading edge, rarely penetrating deep into enemy territory. Ordinary F-16s would have looked much more effective, but the Yankees wanted to fly a VTOL aircraft.
84 multipurpose fighter-bomber F / A-18 "Hornet" (mod. A, C and D)
Famous car. Once the twin-engine "Hornet" competed with the single-engine F-16 in the tender for the creation of a "light fighter", as a result, both were adopted. The F-16 went to serve in the Air Force. The twin-engine F / A-18, as more reliable, was chosen for service on aircraft carriers and in the aviation of the ILC.
In the hot winter of 1991, both vehicles met in one formation - like its F-16 counterpart, the Hornet carried clusters of unguided bombs under its wing, performing missions to destroy ground targets. 4936 sorties. We did everything we could.
Hornets and Prowlers of the Marine Corps at AB Sheikh Isa (Bahrain)
20 subsonic attack aircraft A-6E "Intruder"
The aircraft were based at an air base in Oman. The ILC "intruders" flew 795 sorties.
Electronic warfare aircraft EA-6B "Prowler"
Functionally, they were analogous to the EF-111. In terms of design, the Prowler is a four-seat modification of the A-6 naval attack aircraft. The vehicles of this type performed 504 sorties.
Deck aviation
The actions of the Naval Aviation in Operation Desert Storm were discussed in detail here:
I will confine myself only to general remarks. On board six aircraft carriers were based:
- 99 deck interceptors F-14 "Tomcat" (4004 sorties)
- 85 fighter-bombers F / A-18 (4449)
- 95 subsonic attack aircraft A-6E "Intruder" (4824)
- 24 subsonic attack aircraft A-7 "Corsair II" (737)
- n-th number of S-3B aircraft (1674 sorties. I wonder how many Iraqi submarines were able to find?)
Also, when analyzing "Desert Storm", one cannot ignore the rotary-winged vehicles of the Army and the Marine Corps:
- 274 attack helicopters AN-64 "Apache"
- 50 attack helicopters AN-1W (modernized "Cobras" of the Marine Corps)
Allies or "allies"?
In addition to the US Air Force, combat aircraft from nine countries took part in the operation. The allies' contribution turned out to be small - 17,300 sorties for all, including sorties of tankers and reconnaissance missions.
The king of Saudi Arabia was worried most of all - the war was fought at the very borders, the fate of his state directly depended on the outcome of Operation Desert Storm. The Saudis were able to deploy a grouping of:
- n-th number of F-15C interceptors (approximately five dozen vehicles);
- 24 fighter-bomber "Tornado";
- 87 obsolete F-5 fighters.
Panavia Tornado IDS
In addition to the Saudis, the Anglo-Saxon brothers helped the Americans - the Royal Air Force of Great Britain sent to the region:
- 39 Tornado fighter-bombers;
- 12 attack aircraft "Jaguar";
- 12 Bukanir attack aircraft;
- 3 Nimrod electronic reconnaissance aircraft;
- a certain number of air tankers "Victor" K.2.
The French sent a couple of dozen Mirage F.1 fighters and Jaguar attack aircraft; Italy, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Bahrain chipped in on trifles, there were some scraps of the air force of captured Kuwait. A simple fact speaks about the combat qualities of the "allies": during a combat sortie on the night of January 17, out of six Tornadoes of the Italian Air Force, only one was able to refuel. And no one completed the combat mission - the only refueled bomber was shot down on the way to the target.
Small lyrical digression
Inzhirlik, Darkhan, Al-Dafra, King Khalid, Isa, Tabuk, King Faisal, Garcia, Moron, Mazirah and El-Khufuf (further not in rhyme) Dyarbakir, Jordanian H-4, Cairo West, Taif, Prince Sultan, King Abdul Aziz, Riyadh …
As the reader has already guessed, this was a list of the bases of aviation of the multinational forces in Operation Desert Storm. When the Americans lacked countless bases, aircraft were deployed without further ado at international airports: Al Ain (UAE), King Fahd (Saudi Arabia), Muscat (Oman), at Sharjah and Cairo international airports - wherever there was a place and the necessary infrastructure.
A "modest" local war against small Iraq required a gigantic overextension of forces. Thousands of aircraft, dozens of air bases and 43 days of continuous bombing strikes. Moreover, they could not completely bomb Iraq and destroy its army - otherwise with whom did the Yankees fight in 2003?
F-15C and A-4KU of the Kuwaiti Air Force, which managed to leave the occupied country
They did not fly on the mission like that, but the very fact of the suspension of forty-eight 227-kg bombs speaks volumes. "Anteater" is just a beast
The Stratotanker is in charge of the Prowler of carrier-based aircraft. In the background, refueling of the Prowler from the KA-6D is in progress.
F-14 Tomcat. For 99 interceptors - one aerial victory, Mi-8 helicopter
Saudi Air Force Tornado
