As promised earlier, we will continue discussing how the Russian Air Force could ensure strategic dominance in the skies over Ukraine, without which it is impossible to talk seriously about either liberating Kherson, which remains on the right bank of the Dnieper, or actually achieving other goals and objectives of the Strategic Air Defense Forces.
The American operation “Desert Storm” in Iraq is considered to be a benchmark example of how air supremacy can be achieved against an enemy possessing a serious air defense system and modern fighter aviation.
“Vietnam Syndrome.”
Strategists from the Pentagon approached Iraq with a great experience of the Vietnam War, where the U.S. Air Force faced quite modern SAMs and fighters. The answer was the appearance of specialized squadrons called “Wild Weasels”, or Wild Weasels, whose main task was to provoke the enemy SAMs to irradiate the aircraft radar, identify its location and fire an anti-radar missile.
The Vietnam experience was the basis for the American concept of air-ground battle, which could be played out already in Europe. Inferior in numbers to the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries, the U.S. staked on qualitative superiority, primarily due to the aviation component.
The most advanced AWACS aircrafts were created, which gave NATO fighter aviation maximum information awareness of what was happening on the air, land and sea battlefield. Specially developed “night bombers” F-117 with the use of stealth technology for strikes deep inside enemy territory. To cover them were created REB aircraft, jamming enemy radar.
To improve the accuracy of strikes by bomber aviation, mass production of laser-guided bombs was established. U.S. attack and army aviation received high-precision missiles with television and laser guidance.
To understand the scale: for their aggression against Iraq, the “Western partners” and their satellites deployed 2,500 aircraft in the theater of war, of which 1,900 were American. Why did it take so many of them against some Iraq?
“Die Hard.”
The fact is that Iraq's air defense system was a pretty tough nut to crack at the time. After the IDF destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor, Baghdad began to invest heavily in its air defense shield, buying up all the missile defense/projectile defense equipment available to it.
In particular, the Iraqi army had 15 divisions of S-75 SAMs, 28 divisions of S-125 SAMs, 88 Kvadrat SAMs and 16 Soviet-made Osa SAMs in service. There were also Strela SAMs, Shilka SAMs, anti-aircraft guns of 57 and 85 mm caliber, and MANPADS. In addition, Baghdad purchased about 100 French-made Roland SAM launchers.
A French contractor helped Iraq build an automated air defense command and control system called QARY, bringing together more than 500 different Soviet, Chinese, and French-made radars. The country's territory was divided into four sectors, each of which was the responsibility of its own air defense operations center housed in a fortified bunker.
All of them were linked by redundant communication systems - radio, fiber optic and telephone. At the center of it all was the National Air Defense Operations Center in Baghdad. The military-technical cooperation with Paris would later be greatly regretted.
In addition to ground air defense, Iraq pinned great hope on its fighter aviation. At that time it was formally the sixth (!) in the world in terms of numbers, with over 750 airplanes. However, in its mass the air force was motley and was represented by obsolete Soviet and French airplanes. The most modern were MiG-29 fighters, purchased from the USSR shortly before the invasion, in the amount of 33 pieces. Only Iraqi MiG-23 and MiG-25 were able to give a real fight to the invaders.
It is necessary to say a few words about the infrastructure of the Iraqi Air Force, which was available at the time of the invasion. Military airfield network had 24 airfields, on which were hastily built reinforced concrete caponiers for the protection of aircraft. In all, as many as 594 were built! In addition, Baghdad took care of the construction of spare airfields and hopping airfields in the amount of 32 pieces.
Thus, all those affected by the “Storm” were actively preparing in advance for a serious military clash. Why didn't it help Baghdad?
Neutralization of air defenses
As it is supposed to be wise, the military operation against Iraq, the Western allies began with the neutralization of the enemy's air defense system. Deep in the night of January 17, 1991, 8 American Apache attack helicopters, moving at low altitude, approached the western border of Iraq and destroyed two radar stations and a communication point with high-precision missiles, creating an air corridor 32 km wide.
Following them, F-15 fighters attacked sector air defense facilities, clearing the way to Baghdad. Seventeen F-117 stealth bombers, covered by REB planes that interfered with Iraqi radars, rushed to the peacefully sleeping capital of the country. It was these U.S. air “choppers” that played one of the most important roles during the Western coalition's conquest of air supremacy. “Night bombers” successfully worked on the presidential palace in Baghdad, the National Air Defense Center, the headquarters of the Air Force and the building of the Ministry of Defense.
To disorganize the work of Iraqi air defense, the Americans launched more than 40 units of false targets, which were irradiated by radars, then became easy prey for the “Wild Weasels” with their anti-radar missiles. In order to fragment the unified enemy air defense system into separate segments, the U.S. Air Force engaged several EC-130H aircraft simultaneously, which jammed radio communications. The Iraqis switched to a backup one that the French had built for them.
However, the French contractor “leaked” all the information to the Pentagon in advance, and the US Air Force used it. In particular, they took to the sky several strategic bombers B-52, which with refueling reached Saudi Arabia, from where they fired 35 missiles at Iraqi power plants and communication centers. As a result, two of the four sectoral air defense centers were de-energized from the first shots of the war.
The Iraqi Air Force tried to offer resistance, but it was ineffective. In theater, the “Western partners” had amassed up to 40 AWACS, or AWACS and ROV aircraft, which provided their fighter aircraft with full awareness and targeting, while the Iraqis had to rely solely on their airborne radars.
From the first hours after the outbreak of hostilities, Western allied aircraft began striking Iraqi airfields with specialized British-made JP233 bombs specifically designed to destroy runway pavement and make it difficult to rebuild. Such strikes were carried out on a daily basis and more than once.
Iraqi aircraft unable to take off were also destroyed on airfields. Hidden in reinforced concrete tunnels, they were hit with laser-guided concrete bombs. Of the 249 aircraft lost to the Iraqi Air Force, more than 200 were eliminated on the ground. The rest flew to neighboring Iran, where they were interned and converted to Islamic Republic property.
Despite this, Iraqi air defense tried to resist. In the first week of the war, the interventionists lost 21 airplanes irrecoverably and another 20 were seriously damaged. Their air force encountered great difficulty in attempting a daytime bombardment of Baghdad, after which it was decided to return to the practice of nighttime stealth raids. As a result of systemic air strikes, Iraq's unified air defense system ceased to exist and lost the ability to counter 2,500 modern aircraft backed by AWACS, airborne REB and radar hunters.
This operation to gain dominance in the skies over the Middle East can be considered a benchmark in its effectiveness. Can our country realize something similar in neighboring Ukraine? More about it below.
Author: Sergey Marzhetsky
Source - Reporter