Operation Desert Thunder
Order of Battle
01 May 1998 Snapshot

This is a reasonably accurate order-of-battle of US combat forces deployed in Southwest Asia as of 01 May 1998. In the interest of simplicity and consistency, it only includes striking forces directly participating in or supporting the air campaign, and excludes various non-combatant and logistical support elements. While the Navy forces are fairly well defined, some non-trivial uncertainty remains concerning Air Force deployments, and the Pentagon has from time to time explicitly declined to clarify matters.

During the February 1998 confrontation, Saudi Arabia decided not to allow US combat aircraft to operate from its' facilities, although the Saudis apparently gave permission for support aircraft to use airfields on their territory to support the air campaign. At that time there were also conflicting reports as to the status of forces deployed in Bahrain, although the Defense Department stated that there will be no restrictions placed on US forces deployed in that country. This uncertainty probably was not entirely unrelated to the serious uncertainty as to just exactly how many of what aircraft are actually deployed in Bahrain, as various sources provided rather diverse estimates.