Knight Ridder News Service March 18, 2003
U.S. Forces Primed for Devastating Air, Ground Attacks
By Dave Montgomery
WASHINGTON -- In as little as 48 hours, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is likely to face an enormous U.S. air and ground assault that would far surpass the firepower of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, according to military analysts.
The invasion, involving simultaneous ground and air forces, will feature unmanned aircraft and other 21st-century gadgetry that had barely left the drawing board a decade ago.
U.S. pilots have effectively been practicing for another war against Iraq by enforcing no-fly zones imposed by the United Nations barely a year after the gulf war ended in 1991. Since the early 1990s, for example, F-16 pilots with the 301st Fighter Wing based in Fort Worth, Texas, have been dispatched to the region seven times, flying extensive missions over northern and southern Iraq.
"We know where everything is," says a 40-year-old lieutenant colonel who, for security reasons, asked to be identified only as "Poacher," his call sign.
With President Bush losing patience with diplomacy in the United Nations, an imminent military strike against Iraq appears all but inevitable. More than 250,000 U.S. forces have been deployed throughout the Middle East to prepare for an overwhelming strike against Saddam, who is thought to possess weapons of mass destruction.
Hundreds of U.S. warplanes are in position at 10 bases in six countries throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe, as well as a secret base at Diego Garcia, a tiny atoll in the Indian Ocean. Hundreds more would fly off the decks of five aircraft carriers dispatched to the region over the last several months.
The array of aircraft -- ranging from modified versions of the F-16 to B-1 bombers from Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas -- would showcase the United States' undisputed dominance as the world's greatest air power, a title it has held since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
By contrast, the Iraqi air force, once the sixth-largest in the world, is thought to have fewer than 500 aging Soviet and French-made combat aircraft, a devastating allied bombing campaign of the Persian Gulf War having destroyed the rest.
Its air defense system was also battered in the 1991 war, as well as in subsequent aerial attacks to enforce U.N. sanctions.
Despite the one-sided matchup, however, the Air Force's top general says it would be a mistake to completely dismiss the opposition.
"Their air force still flies up to a thousand sorties a month," Gen. John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, said at a recent round-table interview with defense journalists. "They have several hundred combat airplanes that you cannot just dismiss.
"I'm not going to sit here and downplay the potential of the threat," he said. "We have to be ready for this and I'm not going to take anything for granted."
The air offensive during the Persian Gulf War lasted five weeks, softening up Iraqi defenses before ground forces invaded in a decisive final strike. But military officials and defense analysts say a forthcoming war would link an air and ground assault almost from the outset to secure a quick victory.
"The Bush administration wants this to be short and sweet," said Patrick Garrett, an analyst with Globalsecurity.org, which has tracked the U.S. military buildup in the Middle East. "Right off the bat, American aircraft is going to be providing close air support to ground forces."
The second Persian Gulf War would also prominently display unmanned aircraft, which began coming of age in Afghanistan. Unmanned vehicles such as the Global Hawk and the Predator are expected to be used in unprecedented numbers to spot targets and relay the information to bombers. Others may be armed with Hellfire missiles, expanding on an experiment that began during the Afghan conflict.
Precision-guidance systems will also make smart bombs smarter than ever, enabling pilots to strike targets with pinpoint accuracy. Ground-based sensors that beam precise target information to attacking aircraft could help minimize the potential for civilian casualties.
"We're going to have a level of precision that we've never had before," Jumper said. "Our command and control systems and our ability to identify targets is going to be better than it's ever been before."
The Air Force last week tested the biggest non-nuclear weapon in existence: a 21,500-pound, precision guided bomb known as the MOAB, for Massive Ordnance Air Blast. The monster bomb can be pushed from a C-130 transport to take out underground bunkers, eradicate minefields or annihilate troops.
Jumper said enforcement of the no-fly zones -- which the United Nations established to prevent Saddam's regime from attacks on opposition groups -- has enabled U.S. pilots to constantly monitor military activity, gathering intelligence that could be useful in another gulf war.
"We've been flying over these guys now for 10 years," he said. "We know them and they know us."
The 301st Fighter Wing, based at Naval Air Station Fort Worth, was in the region as late as mid-January, flying out of a base in Saudi Arabia.
Copyright © 2003, Knight Ridder News Service
