Sunday Herald Sun(Melbourne) February 09, 2003
Countdown to a war against Iraq
WE LOOK AT THE COMING INVASION AND THE COST
HOW THE FORCES STACK UP
THE UNITED STATES
TROOPS: 200,000+
Including 1st, 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions, 1st and 2nd Marine Expeditionary Forces, 18th Airborne Division and intelligence and command units.
TANKS/MISSILES
Almost 900 M1 Abrams battle tanks and 581 light armoured vehicles. 400 self-propelled guns and artillery pieces. 1000-plus
Tomahawk cruise missiles.
SHIPS: 120
Including four aircraft carrier battle groups: USS Constellation, USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Harry S Truman, USS Abraham Lincoln - plus guided missile cruisers and destroyers, attack submarines and smaller craft. Also, amphibious assault force carrying landing craft, helicopters and 25,000 marines.
AIRCRAFT: 850
Including US Navy FA-18s, USAF F-16s, B1B Lancers, B2 stealth bombers, AC-130 gunships, stealth fighters, AWACS and JSTAR command and control aircraft. Nimitz class aircraft carrier The 90,000 tonne Nimitz class vessels are capable of launching and receiving as many as four aircraft a minute. The ships carry 5600 crew, seven different types of aircraft with a total of more than 80 planes. Two nuclear reactors give the $16 billion ships virtually unlimited range and endurance and a top speed of more than 30 knots. *The USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Constellation are deployed in the Gulf. The USS Harry S Truman is in the Mediterranean Sea. The USS Nimitz and USS Kitty Hawk are on standby. M-1 Abrams battle tank The $42m Abrams tank is the world's best battle tank. It has a 120mm main gun which can fire depleted uranium 'bunkerbusting' shells great distances. It also boasts four machine guns, special protective armour, a 1500hp turbine engine and the latest computer and thermal imaging equipment. *Almost 900 Abrams tanks are deployed in the Gulf. F-16 fighter Regarded as the best multirole supersonic fighter in the world. More than 4000 F-16s have been produced. The $50m F-16 was the workhorse of
Operation Desert Storm in 1991, flying 13,500 sorties with 250 aircraft. F-16s provided more than 40 per cent of US Air Force bomb- dropping sorties and delivered 20,000 tonnes of bombs during the Gulf War. *More than 400 are deployed in the Gulf.
Tomahawk cruise missile Accurate to within 10 metres, the Tomahawk carries a 450kg load of high explosive over a range of 2480km. It travels at 900km/h and costs up to $3 million. A Tomahawk is capable of flying through a one metre square window at a predesignated time. The Tomahawk had about an 85 per cent direct hit record during the 1991 Gulf War. *More than 1000 are believed deployed in the Gulf.
UNITED KINGDOM
TROOPS: 42,000 Including 4000 Royal Marines and two battalions of the Parachute Regiment.
TANKS: 150 Challenger tanks and self-propelled guns as well as Warrior armoured personnel carriers.
SHIPS: 16 Including the carrier HMS Ark Royal, helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, destroyers HMS Liverpool, Edinburgh, Cardiff and York, the frigates HMS Marlborough and Cumberland, a cruise missile sub and mine sweepers.
AIRCRAFT: 120 Including 75 Tornado fighter-bombers, Jaguar and Harrier jets, tankers and reconnaissance aircraft. Hercules and Globemaster aircraft will be used but are not part of the above figure.
AUSTRALIA
TROOPS: 1500 Including 150-strong SAS contingent and 16 Air Defence Regiment. 4RAR commando battalion on standby.
SHIPS: 3 Landing and support ship HMAS Kanimbla and frigates HMAS Anzac and Darwin on patrol in the Persian Gulf.
AIRCRAFT: 25 Including 14 FA-18 fighters, two Orion patrol and reconnaissance planes and helicopters. Troop lift helicopters and three C130 Hercules transport aircraft.
IRAQ
TROOPS: 280,000 Front-line troops include 70,000 crack Republican Guards.
TANKS: 2500 Battle tanks and up to 4000 light armoured vehicles. 2400 heavy artillery pieces. 4000 anti-tank missiles, 10 SCUD missile launchers with 58 missiles, 40 short-range surface-to-air missiles, 1200 man-portable surface-to-air missiles.
SHIPS: 6 One frigate, two large patrol boats armed with missiles and torpedoes and three small patrol craft.
AIRCRAFT: 500 300 combat aircraft, 200 helicopters.
eb/kj/Graphic News/Sunday Herald Sun 9/2/2003
THE INVASION TACTICS
President George W Bush has admitted he has been planning to invade Iraq for more than 15 months. Here's how he'll do it.
DAY 1 AND DAY 2
BECAUSE Iraq has nothing to lose, the US has considered the real prospect of facing chemical and biological weapons. Additional fears that Saddam will strike at Israel and destroy his oil wells have forced the US to adopt a quick strike plan.
The war will begin probably early in March with a huge air strike, known as "shock and awe", designed to be so devastating that it would leave the Iraqi army either unable or unwilling to fight.
Ships in the Persian Gulf and the Air Force will launch between 600 and 800 cruise missiles in the first 48 hours.
In addition, 3000 precisionguided bombs will be dropped. That is 10 times the number of precision bombs and missiles dropped in the entire 39 days of the Gulf War.
This phase will also include a new weapon, the highpowered microwave. HPM are man-made lightning bolts crammed into cruise missiles to fry communications and electronic systems, even in deep underground bunkers.
B1B Lancer bombers and B2 stealth bombers based on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean also will be used.
Special forces, such as the Australian and British SAS and US Delta Force and SEALS, will begin operations inside Iraq - identifying military and strategic targets.
2 DAY 3 TO DAY 14
AIR strikes continue as invasion of Iraq begins. The major assault will come from the south. More than 100,000 troops headed by the US 1st Infantry Division with tanks from the US 1st Armoured Division and close support will enter Iraq, advancing up the Tigris-Euphrates valley toward Baghdad.
A force of about 25,000 US marines of the 1st and 2nd Expeditionary Forces will be landed near Basra to secure the key oil fields and production facilities.
Three US Navy carrier battle groups have been deployed to the Persian Gulf to support the southern invasion - including the nuclear powered USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Constellation, each carrying more than 80 aircraft. A typical carrier group includes two guided missile cruisers, two attack submarines and three guided missile destroyers or frigates.
In a second assault from the west, another large force of tanks and up to 40,000 infantry troops will enter Iraq from Saudi Arabia or Jordan.
A third smaller assault could be launched from Turkey into northern Iraq. To seize the strategically important town Mosul. These two secondary attacks would be supported by aircraft from bases in Turkey and aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean.
There, the US has a carrier battle group headed by the USS Harry S Truman. A 15-ship strong British battle group, including the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, is deployed off Cyprus.
Australian FA-18 fighters could join the air battle after the first few days.
3 DAY 15 TO DAY 21
THE MAIN invasion force in the south will engage and destroy Iraqi field forces. Vital to the coalition's advance will be its superior tank force. The US M1 Abrams tank and the British Challenger II main battle tank, which are filled with
computer and thermal imaging equipment, are more than a match for Iraq's 2500 ageing Russian-made T-72 tanks.
The second assault from the west could include the US 18th Airborne Corps and Britain's 7th Armoured Division and two battalions of the Parachute Regiment. The western assault will be the second arm of a pincer movement designed to split the forces defending Baghdad. Coalition forces will advance quickly over open ground with support from air strikes. But as they get closer to Baghdad, the fighting will become more bitter. Coalition losses could be as high as 1000.
4. DAY 22 TO DAY 42
BLOODY house-to-house fighting could characterise the final phase of the war as coalition forces close on Baghdad. If stiff resistance is put up by the 70,000- strong Iraqi Republican Guard and 15,000 of Saddam Hussein's own bodyguard, large sections of Baghdad could be reduced to rubble. Australia's 150 commandos of 4RAR could be asked to join the urban battle.
The threat of localised use of chemical or biological weapons becomes most likely at this point.
A controversial contingency being prepared by the Pentagon is cremating the bodies of allied soldiers killed by biological and chemical weapons. US military tradition stipulates, where possible, the bodies of the slain are brought home in a flag-draped coffin for burial.
But if they are contaminated with lethal agents and are a threat to fellow soldiers and civilians at home, they may have to be burned in piles.
5 POST HOSTILITES
AFTER about seven weeks of conflict, the coalition forces will face a mop-up operation seeking out and destroying the remnants of Saddam Hussein's most fanatical military formations. The coalition will begin assembling a new democratic administration to govern and rebuild the shattered nation.
Sources: U.S. Navy, GlobalSecurity.org, Federation of American Scientists, U.S. Central Command, Global security Australian Defence Studies Centre/Centre for International Strategic Analysis. eb/kj/Graphic News/Sunday Herald Sun 9/2/2003
Copyright © 2003, Nationwide News Pty Limited
