Agence France Presse January 1, 2003
Hi-tech US weaponry could be used in conflict with Iraq
BY JEAN-MICHEL STOULLIG
Military experts say the Pentagon has developed a series of accurate and powerful new weapons, including a microwave bomb, that could be used in a war against Iraq.
But they point out that it is the round-the-clock reliance on precision-guided munitions known as JDAMs and unmanned drones that is expected to make a difference in the war against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The electromagnetic E-bomb, designed to destroy electronic nerve centers, could already be in the US arsenal, although Washington has not announced it publicly. While it does not kill people, it is capable of causing burns. On top of that, the E-bomb "could sever communications between Saddam Hussein and troops that might be ordered to use chemical and biological weapons," said John Pike, a military affairs expert.
"It could freeze weapons of mass destruction, at least that would be the hope," he added.
Similarly, the blackout bomb BLU-114B, which can be delivered by planes or cruise missiles, is capable of disrupting electricity grids in urban areas.
However, cutting off electricity could be a bad idea in the event that US military should want to broadcast to the Iraqi people the death of their president.
The defense industry was also improving deep-penetration weapons that could be used against underground bunkers or mountain caves. Some of these weapons have already been used in the 1990-1991 Gulf War and in Afghanistan.
Last March in Afghanistan, the US army used the thermobaric bomb BLU-118S, which is often referred to as a air-fuel weapon capable of knocking down walls and sucking out oxygen from enclosed spaces.
In September, aerospace giant Lockheed-Martin tested, in the state of New Mexico, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), a cruise missile launched from F-16 fighter jets that is capable of penetrating the hardest surfaces and finding its target even through fog and cloud cover.
"We will throw everything at him that we have ... including thermobaric and bunker buster weapons designed to get at buried arsenals of chemical and biological weapons," said Chris Hellman of the Center for Defense Information, in a reference to Saddam Hussein.
"As long as we suspect they are there and that Saddam may resort to using them we will throw the kitchen sink at him, short of weapons of mass destruction," he added.
But first and foremost, military experts count on using proven systems like JDAMs and other precision-guided munitions that rely on global positioning satellites to home in on their targets.
Precision-guided weapons represented only seven percent of all munitions used against Iraqi troops in the Gulf War, according to retired military officer Mike Vickers.
Their share rose to 30 percent in the 1999 Kosovo campaign, to 60 percent in Afghanistan and was expected to reach 80 percent in Iraq, Vickers said.
"The air drop will be almost entirely precision-guided, and the bulk of it will be satellite instead of laser-guided," Pike pointed out.
To quietly monitor enemy movements, the pilotless drones Predator and Global Hawk are already in the arsenal.
The Marines Corps has a prototype of Dragon Eye, a mini-drone that can spot snipers in urban environments like Baghdad.
The US Army has just unveiled its future spy plane called Shadow 200.
But ultimately, despite all technological progress, it is armored ground units that will bring about the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, according to Pike.
Iraqis may be accustomed to air strikes but not to seeing M-1A2 Abrams tanks at the gates of Baghdad.
These tanks, as well as the armored, tank-like Apache helicopters, have also been modernized.
Copyright © 2003 Agence France Presse
