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00:12with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait a great confrontation began as a host of forces
00:18from around the world were deployed against the Iraqi army this video
00:22ordnance program looks at the weapons of Operation Desert Shield the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait pitted
00:36the largest army in the Persian Gulf against one of the smallest the Iraqi army hardened by a
00:42decade-long war with neighboring Iran numbers over 650,000 men against a Kuwaiti force of only
00:4910,000 even the vast kingdom of Saudi Arabia has only 95,000 troops in its army and National Guard
00:56it was the threat that Iraq might extend its invasion beyond Kuwait into the oil-rich Saudi
01:03lands that prompted the anti-Iraq coalition to deploy in Saudi Arabia codenamed by the United States Desert
01:31but just how good is the Iraqi army Seth Karras a noted specialist on Mideast military issues describes
01:39the performance of the Iraqi army in the Iran Iraq war waged from 1980 to 1989 Iraqis showed a very
01:48mixed picture during the war they sometimes did very well they sometimes did very badly they had
01:53a lot of problems one of them was political interference when Saddam Hussein interfered in
01:58military operations things often went extremely badly when he kept hands off and left things in the
02:04hands of the professional soldiers they often did quite well in addition it depended upon the
02:12circumstances the Iraqis were never extraordinarily good at mobile warfare but they did learn during
02:18the course of the war and by the end of the war they were much better at it than they
02:21had been at
02:21the beginning of the war they also learned over the course of the war a whole lot about fighting
02:26defensive operations so that by the end of the war they were very good at building fortifications and
02:32equipping them and manning them with troops the Iraqi army is organized into about seven tank divisions
02:39three mechanized divisions and fifty infantry divisions with the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 the
02:46Iraqis shifted their military might away from their former Iranian foe and into a southern direction facing
02:53Saudi Arabia according to intelligence sources by the end of 1990 the Iraqis had moved their 25 best
03:01divisions over 350,000 troops into the Kuwaiti theater this includes over 3,000 tanks 3,000 armored
03:10vehicles and 2,000 artillery pieces the shock force in these actions was the elite Republican Guard the
03:19Republican Guard started totally as a defense of the regime type force it existed for political reasons
03:27and that reflected the fact that essentially every government in Iraq has
03:31changed because of a coup so that there's a tremendous desire on the part of the current regime
03:37to have means of keeping the military under control for most of the time in the last 20 years the
03:48Republican Guards has been a fairly small force growing over time but never that large during the
03:56latter part of the war however especially in the last few years it was greatly expanded so it now is
04:03a
04:03multi-divisional force including armor infantry commandos that in fact is the elite shock part of the army it
04:14still has a political role of defense of the regime which is why the Iraqis kept portions of the Republican
04:21Guard sitting in Baghdad even as they were invading Kuwait but it also has this critical military role
04:27it's the best part of the army even though there are other parts of the armed forces which are good
04:33I mean there's some good mechanized armored units in the regular army there's some good commando units in
04:39the regular army but the core strike force is the Republican Guards Iraq's military equipment is nearly as diverse as
04:49that of the forces facing it
04:50during the mid-1980s Iraq purchased 30 billion dollars of arms from abroad by far the largest share came from
04:57the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies France was the second largest supplier of arms with much smaller amounts
05:05coming from NATO countries such as Germany Italy and Britain
05:13China sold Iraq over three billion dollars of weapons countries new to the arms trade flock to Iraq to sell
05:20their new military products Brazil North Korea and Yugoslavia sold five billion dollars of weapons to the Iraqi armed forces
05:28American arms sales to Iraq were nearly non-existent
05:32to counter the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and to prevent further Iraqi aggression a multinational force led by the United
05:41States began deploying in the Gulf region
05:43the largest contingent is from the United States including over a quarter of a million army and marine troops
05:50Syria has pledged 19,000 troops with similar numbers coming from Egypt
05:55European contingents include about 30,000 British troops and over 15,000 French other contingents were deployed from over a
06:04dozen other countries
06:05Desert Shield is the largest massing of land naval and air power ever seen in the Gulf region
06:23the Iraqi navy is small and does not compare to the sizable forces deployed in the Persian Gulf by the
06:30navies of the multinational force
06:31the sea has been the primary means of supplying the armies of the multinational force the navies are also countering
06:38any attempt to resupply the Iraqi army by enforcing the United States
06:42the United Nations economic embargo of Iraq
06:45Merchant vessel this is US Navy warship channel 1-6
06:47Captain request you to shift to channel 1-0, over
06:51Here we see an American warship in the Red Sea conducting a boarding of a green freighter
06:59the Baltic mermaid headed for the Red Sea port of Aqaba in Jordan
07:03the warship hails the freighter and inquires about its cargo
07:07Captain I also need to find out what your cargo is
07:10Our cargo is Barney and Bulge Barney and Bulge
07:17Barney and Bulge 3
07:17Barney and Bulge
07:19Captain I understand that you're
07:21You're on 300
07:21They have one day
07:27The captain decides to send a boarding party onto the freighter
07:31Load the motor whale boat
07:33The captain's over
07:34The captain's overë‚
08:02It's all right if you open some cargo hatches.
08:07The next hardest thing is making sure the paperwork is legitimate and matching the manifest documents and the bills of
08:14lading of their cargo with the actual cargo and we inspect the decks and the cargo holds.
08:24Which one you want?
08:27I want this.
08:46Besides their utility in waging economic blockades on Iraq, the naval forces in the Gulf add considerably to the military
08:53might of the Desert Shield Coalition.
08:57What navies give you in general is mobility so they can strike from directions other than the ones that he
09:03may be prepared to handle.
09:05The effect of naval forces is to increase the number of possible strike options, all of which he has to
09:12meet, that thins him out.
09:14Incidentally, it probably helps thin him out on the ground as well.
09:17So, first of all, there are strike options and that will mean tomahawks and also aircraft.
09:23Then, in addition, there will be options for amphibious operations, probably helicopter landings.
09:29And it's not just our Navy, but also remember the French have a carrier there with the helicopters on board.
09:36So, what it presents him with is a more complicated defensive job.
09:40Now, in addition, remember that there are carriers in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
09:44They can launch airstrikes.
09:46There are probably also ships with the carriers, with the tomahawks on board.
09:50The tomahawks can come in from unexpected directions.
09:54If we're able to map his airfields and his radar stations in advance, then presumably we can hit them.
10:00That helps pave the way for the airstrikes that follow in.
10:05The Navy can influence the land battle with air power from its carriers,
10:10missiles from its warships and submarines,
10:13and with marine amphibious forces from its assault ships in the Gulf.
10:17Navy assault ships like this one carry not only the marine ground forces,
10:22but their air support as well, such as the AV-8B Harrier jump jet.
10:54The offensive punch of the Iraqi army comes from its tanks.
10:58This is one area in which the Iraqis have a numerical preponderance over the forces in Saudi Arabia.
11:04But the allied forces have a qualitative superiority.
11:08A third of the Iraqi force is made up of the older Soviet T-54, T-55 tanks,
11:14and their Chinese equivalent, the Type 59 and Type 69.
11:18This tank type dates back to the 1950s and is armed with a conventional 100mm gun.
11:25The Iraqis have developed their own improved version of the T-55,
11:29including an up-armed version with a 125mm gun and a Type with advanced armor.
11:36The single most numerous type of tank in the Iraqi service is the Soviet T-62 and its North Korean
11:44copy.
11:45The T-62 is very similar to the older T-55, but it is armed with an improved 115mm gun.
11:52Some North Korean and Chinese supplied tanks have improved gun accuracy due to a laser rangefinder.
12:00The most advanced tank in the Iraqi arsenal is the T-72 tank,
12:05which amounts to about 30% of the Iraqi tank force.
12:09This tank is used mainly by the elite Republican Guard units.
12:13The T-72 is armed with a very powerful 125mm gun
12:18and is considerably improved over the older tanks in Iraqi service,
12:22with better armor and superior gun accuracy.
12:26Although Soviet tanks and their copies make up most of the Iraqi tank force,
12:31there is a hodgepodge assortment of other tanks captured during the war with Iran,
12:36including a few dozen American and British tanks.
12:42The Iraqi tanks look very good on paper.
12:44If you take a look at the key characteristics of main battle tanks,
12:48the gun performance, the thickness of the armor, the mobility of the tank,
12:51the Iraqi tanks seem to stack up pretty well against American or British or French tanks.
12:57But you have to take a look a little bit deeper than that.
13:01For example, the issue of the durability of the vehicle.
13:04The Iraqi tanks, mostly coming from the Soviet Union or China,
13:08are relatively inexpensive tanks that aren't very durable.
13:11As an example, the gun barrel on a Soviet or an Iraqi T-72 tank is good for about 100,
13:17120 rounds before it gets worn out.
13:19Now, on a comparable tank, an American or British or European tank,
13:23the barrels tend to last 500 rounds, 1,000 rounds.
13:26That wouldn't seem to make much difference in battle, but it has a lot to do with training.
13:30It means that the Iraqis can't train with their tanks as much as the Americans or the British or the
13:35French,
13:35because their barrels run out, their tracks eventually wear out, the engines wear out.
13:41So as a result, the Iraqis don't train as hard, they don't train as often,
13:44they don't train as long as the tankers on the other side of the potential battle.
13:50What this means is that the Iraqi tankers have less skill in many of the basic combat skills,
13:56such as the accuracy of their fire.
13:58Another factor to keep in mind also is that many of the Iraqi tanks are very heavily worn out from
14:03the last Gulf War,
14:04from the Iran-Iraq War, which lasted almost a decade.
14:07So I don't think that we should be misled by the simple numbers, by the fact the Iraqis have more
14:12tanks.
14:13The bottom line is that numbers alone don't tell the whole story,
14:16that there's other factors that certainly have to be kept in mind.
14:19The multinational force in Saudi Arabia is equipped with an equally diverse selection of tanks.
14:25The tanks of the American and European units are generally superior to those fielded by Iraq.
14:31The mainstay of the United States Army units is the M1 Abrams and its improved variant, the M1A1.
14:39The M1 Abrams tank is armed with a 105mm gun which is fully stabilized, allowing it to fire while moving.
14:50The improved M1A1 Abrams tank has a larger 120mm smoothbore gun and is fitted with a new generation of laminate
15:00armor.
15:01The M1A3 upgrade is chockon.
15:02The M2A4.
15:20The M2A2.
15:20The M2A3.
15:21The M2A1.
15:25The M2A2.
15:41U.S. Marine units use the older M60A-1 tank, which was developed in the 1960s.
15:53Many have been modernized with additional applique armor to protect themselves against
15:58Iraqi anti-tank missiles.
16:09British forces, including the famous 7th Armored Brigade, known as the Desert Rats, are equipped
16:15with the Challenger main battle tank.
16:18It is a new design similar to the American M1 Abrams in size and performance.
16:22The Saudi Arabian Army is equipped with the American M60 tank, and both Saudis and French
16:28units in the Gulf also use the French-built AMX-30 tank.
16:40Although the Iraqi tanks have outnumbered the Allied tanks, the multinational units have
16:45enjoyed a distinct technological edge.
16:48Take the two top tanks as an example.
16:50The Iraqi T-72 is about 40 tons in weight, compared to 65 tons for the M1 Abrams.
16:58The M1 Abrams tank is heavier than the T-72 due to its thicker armor and larger interior,
17:05which allows more ammunition to be carried.
17:10This overhead view of the turrets of the T-72 and the M1 show the real difference.
17:16The M1 turret is wider and larger due to its thick layer of advanced laminate armor.
17:22The frontal armor of the M1A1 will stop nearly any existing anti-tank missile or projectiles.
17:29Another difference is that the T-72 has a three-man crew, compared to the four in the M1 Abrams,
17:36since the T-72 has an autoloader instead of a human loader.
17:41The interior of the M1 tank is more spacious than the T-72, making it more suitable for
17:47prolonged combat operations in difficult desert conditions.
17:51Most Iraqi T-72s are older models, which do not have advanced laminate armor in the turret,
17:57so they are more vulnerable to many types of anti-tank missiles and larger tank guns.
18:03Although the basic gun performance of the T-72 and the M1 is very similar,
18:08the Abrams has distinct accuracy advantages due to superior gunfire controls.
18:14The T-72 can only fire from the halt or while moving at very slow speeds.
18:20Fire control system is excellent.
18:23Shooting on the move is better than the 60.
18:28The faster the tank goes, the more stabilized the gun is.
18:31And you can smack targets, you can ask my gunner,
18:34he can hit targets moving at 30, 35 miles an hour without a problem.
18:38One of the unique advantages of the more advanced tanks of the multinational forces
18:42is their thermal night sights, a far more versatile sighting system than the types employed on Iraqi tanks.
18:49These sights can also be used during the daytime to see through smoke that would blind Iraqi tanks.
19:06The Iraqi tank force is not as experienced as other branches of the Iraqi army.
19:16Its performance during the Iran-Iraq war was lackluster.
19:20Because of the fact that the Iraqis did not face a serious armored threat,
19:26there really was not the need for them to develop the kinds of equipment and the kinds of tactics and
19:32capabilities
19:32that they would have needed if they were fighting somebody with a real armored force.
19:39If there's a war between the U.S. and Iraq, the U.S. is going to have real armored forces,
19:44and they're going to have no experience in dealing with those kinds of forces.
19:49So I think this really reflects one of the disadvantageous results of their experience in the war with Iran.
19:56If you're just going up against infantry, even a T-55 is fine.
20:04Tanks are not the only armored vehicles on the modern battlefield,
20:08and in fact are outnumbered by a wide variety of light armored vehicles.
20:13For example, armored attacks are often preceded by armored scout units,
20:17which hunt out the weak points in enemy defenses.
20:21The Saudi National Guard has used the American-manufactured V-150 Commando armored car.
20:26Its wheels give it very good speed in areas of hard desert.
20:31The French Army has a larger and more powerful type in the Gulf,
20:35the AMX-10RC, armed with an impressive 105-millimeter gun.
21:06The U.S. Marine Corps uses a family of light armored vehicles called LAV.
21:12The basic LAV-25 is used in the scouting role
21:16and is armed with a rapid-fire 25-millimeter Bushmaster cannon.
21:21The Iraqi Army uses several different types of wheel scout vehicles,
21:25including the Soviet BRDM-2, the Brazilian Cascaval,
21:30and several different types of French armored cars.
21:35Infantry is very vulnerable to artillery fire and machine guns on the modern battlefield,
21:40and so often rides into combat in armored infantry transporters.
21:45The U.S. Army uses the M-2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle,
21:49which is the most heavily armored infantry vehicle in service anywhere in the world.
22:04The British Army uses the Warrior, which is very similar to the Bradley in most respects.
22:13Because of their possible role in naval landings,
22:17the U.S. Marine Corps uses a very specialized type of infantry carrier,
22:21the AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicle,
22:24which has far superior swimming capabilities than conventional infantry vehicles.
22:40The Iraqi Army is not well equipped with troop carriers.
22:45Only a small fraction of its infantry forces have such vehicles.
22:48The best Iraqi armored infantry vehicle is the Soviet BMP, which comes in two varieties.
22:56The BMP-1 with a 73-millimeter low-pressure gun,
22:59and the improved BMP-2 with a 30-millimeter automatic cannon.
23:05The BMP-2 is lighter than the American Bradley at 15 tons versus 22 tons for the Bradleys.
23:13Mobility of both vehicles is similar, though the infantryman in the Bradley is better cushioned from the shocks of high
23:20-speed cross-country travel than in the less robust BMP.
23:24The firepower of the Bradley and the BMP is similar, both having an automatic cannon and supplementary anti-tank missile
23:32launcher.
23:33The Bradley weapons system is more accurate at long ranges, and the vehicle carries more ammunition.
23:40The infantry squad of both vehicles is usually six men plus a crew of three men in the vehicle itself.
23:52Iraq's advantage in land power really is more in the area of the numbers of armored vehicles,
23:56the number of artillery pieces, the number of troops, certainly not in quality.
24:00And so that raises the question, is it numbers which really determine the outcome of the war?
24:05If you take a look at the lessons of recent wars in the Mideast,
24:08for example, the war between Israel, Egypt, and Syria in 1973,
24:13it's quite clear that the numbers weren't really the determining factor in the war.
24:17Rather, it was the skill and determination of the troops.
24:20And that is certainly likely to be the case in the Gulf as well.
24:35Air power is one of the areas where the multinational forces have unquestioned superiority.
24:41The Iraqi Air Force, although equipped with some first-rate aircraft,
24:45faces the most technologically sophisticated array of warplanes ever amassed in the Mideast.
24:55The Iraqi Air Force is structured to assist the ground forces in combat.
25:00It has over 950 combat aircraft, about 500 of which are attack aircraft and bombers.
25:06The remainder are mainly fighters, but many older Iraqi warplanes are in poor repair.
25:13The most numerous Iraqi fighter is the Soviet MiG-21 and its Chinese derivatives.
25:19This 1960s vintage fighter makes up nearly 70% of the Iraqi fighter strength,
25:25but it does not compare favorably with more modern fighters.
25:29The Iraqis possess a small force of MiG-25 Foxbat high-altitude interceptors,
25:35and are rumored to have a few of the more advanced MiG-31 Foxhunt.
25:41The Iraq uses a small portion of its excellent French Dassault Mirage F1 fighter bombers
25:47in the interceptor role.
25:55By far the most capable fighter in the Iraqi infantry is the Soviet MiG-29 Fulcrum.
26:01The MiG-29 is technically similar to newer generations of American aircraft,
26:06such as the American F-16 and F-18 Hornet.
26:09That's all!
26:38You47 all-American aircraft.
26:55Soviet-supplied aircraft make up about 75% of the inventory of Iraqi strike aircraft.
27:05This includes the older Tu-16 Badger and Tu-22 Blinder medium bombers. Sukhoi fitters are the most numerous
27:19attack aircraft in the Iraqi Air Force, ranging from the older Sukhoi 7 to the more modern Sukhoi 17.
27:28Ground attack versions of the Soviet MiG-23 flogger make up another quarter of the force.
27:34These aircraft carry a wide range of conventional bombs, as well as new laser-guided missiles.
27:48Recently, the Soviets have provided the Su-25 Progfoot ground attack aircraft, an effective
27:54close-air support aircraft that saw extensive combat in the skies over Afghanistan. The
28:00Progfoot is similar to the American A-10 tank buster.
28:10The Iraqis recently acquired a handful of sophisticated Soviet Su-24 fencers, which give them long-range
28:17attack capabilities similar to the American F-111. One of the most capable Iraqi strike aircraft is the
28:30French-built Mirage F-1. The Iraqi Mirages are equipped with the Exocet anti-ship missile,
28:36making them a significant threat to surface warships. It was an Iraqi Mirage that damaged
28:41the U.S. destroyer Stark in the Persian Gulf in 1987. Thirty-two tankers and other ships were
28:48damaged or sunk in the Persian Gulf by Iraqi exocets during the war with Iraq.
29:06Though Iraq possesses a sophisticated arsenal of modern combat aircraft, its past combat record has been
29:13notable for its lack of success in employing these aircraft.
29:18It was a mixed picture. I mean, there were some things that they did relatively well in the air. I
29:23mean,
29:24there were some rather effective long-range strike missions against tankers in the Persian Gulf,
29:30for example. They were able to mount some raids on Tehran with their aircraft, which is a long way to
29:38go,
29:38carrying even a small payload. So that they were able to do some things relatively effectively. The problem
29:45is that the Iraqis really were reluctant to put their air force at risk. They conducted, by and large,
29:55operations that there was little chance that the planes would get shot down. And that meant, of course,
29:59that they never really learned how to do all the important things that air forces do. They didn't let
30:04them do close air support. They turned that over to the helicopter forces in the army. And they didn't
30:10really do a lot of heavy, effective attacks of the kind that other countries with similar sized air
30:18forces could undertake. I suspect the real problem is that they don't understand what air forces can do
30:24and what they're for. Even with the kinds of equipment they had, even with the desire to minimize losses,
30:33they still could have accomplished a whole lot more with the equipment they had. You know, you put that
30:39same air force in the hands of even some other Middle Eastern countries, you know, like the Jordanians
30:44or the Israelis, and it would have actually been a very effective instrument. So I think the fundamental
30:50core problem is that they really don't understand what air power is all about.
30:55The unwillingness of the Iraqi air force to commit its precious strike aircraft to the close air
31:00support missions shifted the burden to the army's small force of attack helicopters.
31:06The Iraqi helicopter force uses a diverse selection of Soviet and European helicopters in this role.
31:15The Gazelle and BO-105 helicopters were used against tanks with hot guided missiles.
31:33Facing the Iraqi air force is a formidable array of the best war planes developed in Europe and the
31:40United States. The Saudi Air Force flies the American F-15 Eagle. Compared to the Iraqi MiG-29,
31:47the F-15 is a larger aircraft with greater range and a heavier weapons load.
31:53The F-15's radar can acquire the MiG-29 at long ranges before the MiG-29's own radar can see
31:59the Eagle.
32:04The F-15 Eagle is backed up by the E-3A AWACS, a long range radar and command center.
32:12It can track Iraqi fighters from the moment they take off and coordinate interceptions by friendly fighters.
32:19Command and control is a critical but little known ingredient in modern air combat.
32:25U.S. Air Force squadrons in the Gulf are equipped with the F-15 Eagle as well as the smaller
32:31F-16 fighter bomber.
32:33The F-15 is a high performance interceptor which combines sophisticated avionics with excellent maneuverability.
32:41The F-15 Eagle is a huge company whose serving is higher than the American F-16.
32:45A-4A AWACS, a big mission is a huge company.
32:45The F-17 Eagle is a huge company.
32:59The F-16 Eagle is a huge company.
33:00The F-16 Eagle is a huge company.
33:02The F-17 Eagle is a huge company.
33:05The F-17 Eagle is a huge company.
33:18Another highly capable interceptor is the British Tornado F3, flown by the Royal Saudi
33:24Air Force and the British Royal Air Force.
33:27It is armed with Sky Flash and Sidewinder missile.
33:33The small Kuwaiti Air Force, operating from Saudi bases, is equipped with the A-4 Skyhawk
33:39and small numbers of Mirage F-1 fighters.
33:44Besides land-based squadrons, the U.S. Navy provides additional airpower from the decks
33:49of its aircraft carriers offshore.
33:51The Navy's principal interceptor is the F-14 Tomcat.
34:04The Tomcat is an air-to-air fighter, so its job would be a strike escort or protection
34:11of ships in the Gulf, and its advantage is the ability to handle several enemy aircraft
34:17at one time, the ability to distinguish many aircraft at once on its rather elaborate radar.
34:23Possibly it would also provide some kind of forward air control in a combat situation,
34:28because there is some command and control capability in the airplane.
34:34Bridging the gap between interceptors and bombers are dual role fighter bombers, such as the Air
34:40Force's F-16 and the Navy's F-A-18 Hornet.
34:44These can serve as dog fighters to supplement the interceptors, or can carry out ground attack
34:50missions in concert for the more specialized attack aircraft.
34:56The multinational forces in the Gulf placed considerable emphasis on ground attack aircraft.
35:02The Saudi Air Force employs the British Aerospace Tornado GR-1 strike fighter.
35:07Compared to the Iraqi Sukhoi-17 fitter, the Tornado GR-1 has a heavier bomb load, 8 tons versus 5
35:15tons,
35:16and greater rain.
35:18More importantly, the Tornado's sophisticated radar navigation attack system allows it to operate
35:24day or night in nearly any weather, while the fitter is limited to fair weather, daytime missions.
35:31Royal Air Force squadrons in the Gulf include both Tornado GR-1 and Jaguar units.
35:37The Jaguar is in the same size and range category as the Iraqi Mirage F-1.
35:42The Jaguar can carry up to 4 and a half tons of bombs, compared to 4 tons for the Mirage.
35:48French forces in the Gulf have also deployed the Mirage F-1 interceptor, making it one of the
35:53most common fighter types in the region.
35:59The U.S. Air Force's principal close-range tank buster is the A-10.
36:04The A-10 is armed with a potent 30-millimeter cannon, as well as precision-guided Maverick
36:10missiles for attacking hardened targets such as tanks and armored buildings.
36:21The Air Force's deep interdiction mission is performed by sophisticated attack aircraft,
36:27such as the F-15E Eagle and the F-111.
36:31These aircraft have advanced terrain-following radars, which permit fast, low-altitude attacks
36:38to better evade enemy air defenses.
36:40They can carry out their missions in all weather and at night.
36:46The Navy's equivalent of the F-111 is the A-6 Intruder.
36:51The most exotic strike fighter in service in the Gulf is the F-117 Black Jet, which is designed
36:58primarily for pinpoint nighttime attack of critical high-value targets.
37:12The main threat to the aircraft of the multinational force is more likely to be the numerous anti-aircraft
37:18weapons of the Iraqi Army, rather than the opposing fighters of the Iraqi Air Force.
37:23If you look at the Iraqi air defenses, you're immediately struck by one thing, and that
37:27is that they have a large number of pretty much obsolete or obsolescent medium-range surface-to-air
37:37missile systems.
37:39Even in third-world standards, that equipment is probably pretty marginal.
37:43At the same time, they've got this incredible array of short-range air defense systems, large
37:51numbers of guns, a lot of decent quality short-range surface-to-air missiles.
37:58The disparity suggests two things.
38:01First of all, that the threat that they faced was really one that was best dealt with by low-altitude
38:07systems, so that they put all their effort into this large mass of short-range systems.
38:14Second, I think it also reflects the fact that a lot of that equipment had a dual purpose.
38:18A lot of the anti-aircraft guns were used for things other than just shooting it at aircraft.
38:22They were also used to support the ground forces in defensive operations, so that there was a
38:28practical value in having a gun that could be used for dual purposes.
38:35This emphasis is going to really come back to haunt them if they have to fight the US Air
38:39Force, because we're going to be able to strip away their medium-range SAMs without that much
38:45difficulty, and as a result, they're going to just have to fall back on their short-range
38:51systems, and we can exploit that tactically to operate pretty effectively against their forces.
39:00The missile threat can be countered by a combination of anti-radar missiles, electronic jamming, and
39:08stealth technology. Aircraft such as the EF-111 Raven blind opposing air defences by jamming their
39:15radars electronically. Anti-radar missiles, such as the Harm, destroy the radars that guide the anti-aircraft missiles.
39:29stealth technology camouflages strike aircraft from radar.
39:49close air support of Army units is the specialty of attack helicopters. In the helicopter arsenal, the closest
39:57equivalent of the Iraqi Hind helicopter is the US Army's AH-64 Apache. Both are
40:04aircraft have two-man crews and are armed with traversable automatic cannon in the nose, as well as anti-tank
40:11missiles and rockets on the side winglets. The Hind is faster than the Apache, but the Apache offers heavier
40:18firepower and greater accuracy. As in the case of the tank balance, the Apache enjoys the advantage of a night
40:26attack
40:26system, which allows it to operate 24 hours a day. It is armed with a 30-millimeter cannon and laser
40:34-guided
40:34hellfire missiles, which can destroy tanks at ranges of over two miles.
41:03The Iraqis have shown a special interest in secret weapons running
41:08the gamut from ballistic missiles and super artillery to chemical and nuclear weapons
41:14the iraqi super gun project code named operation babylon was never completed because of the
41:21assassination of its inventor dr gerald bull in 1990 although there is no doubt that the iraqis
41:28are working on an atomic bomb there's little firm evidence how soon such a weapon would be ready
41:36but the iraqis have had more success with their long-range missile program
41:44it started out in the 70s before the war that the iraqis received frog sevens from the soviets
41:51a small battlefield missile later on as the war you know grew they obtained some scuds from the
42:00soviet union and they realized that they needed something to reach to iran which is at a greater
42:05range than any of the missiles that they had so they possibly approached the soviets first and
42:11soviets refused to give them the assistance or did not give them the assistance that they wanted
42:16and then they approached the east germans who did provide some limited assistance and then they went
42:22to the western countries where they did receive assistance from like west germany italy but while
42:29they were doing that they also pursued a south american egyptian option where with the help of
42:37argentina and egypt they pursued a project known as condor which eventually was cancelled because they
42:45were able to develop indigenous capabilities involvement in the condor project ended when the iraqis
42:52succeeded in modifying their scud missiles to give them greater range they wanted a quick and dirty
43:01capability to strike terran with scuds since the normal scud b which they were using is of a shorter
43:07range than the distance to terran they cannibalized basically they took three scuds cut them up and made
43:15one long range scud by enlarging the fuel tanks uh some minor you know structural modifications and
43:22reducing the size of the warhead it decreased the overall accuracy of the missile but they did get
43:28the range which they were looking for and it was quick and dirty um that was called the al hussein
43:34and there are two versions there was the cannibalized one which i just mentioned and eventually it
43:39appears as if they developed uh using components purchased abroad uh the capability to produce an
43:45entire al hussein from indigenous sources or bought in components as opposed to cannibalized
43:52and from that they developed another rocket uh called the al abbas which has greater range
43:59and is indigenously produced or produced with components that are important
44:05the 1988 war of the cities between iran and iraq was one motive for the iraqi interest in missiles
44:13but other factors were involved there's also another reason possibly uh of more importance in the long run
44:21is the fact that saddam hussein believes that he is the person to unite the arab world
44:27it appears if he has those aspirations and developing a ballistic missile capability
44:33would give him that much more prestige and that much more uh persuasion capability
44:40the increasing range of iraqi missiles has created a greater and greater threat to neighboring
44:47countries in the region the scud has real limitations when being used against military targets especially
44:52with just a conventional high explosive warhead the soviets developed the scud back in the 1950s to
44:58carry a nuclear warhead so of course with a nuclear warhead the accuracy really isn't that
45:03important because the nuclear warheads blast area is so large in contrast the iraqi scuds are fitted
45:09entirely with high explosive warheads and so accuracy means quite a bit the accuracy of the scud is about
45:16one kilometer it has a cep a circular error probability of about one kilometer and what that means is that
45:23when you fire the missile only about half of them are going to strike in an area about one kilometer
45:27around the target so it means that if you're attacking a pinpoint military target for example
45:32an air base it's going to require quite a few missiles to do any significant damage to the target
45:38now if you also take into consideration the fact that these missiles cost about a million dollars a
45:42piece it really means that missiles aren't a very effective way to attack many types of military
45:47targets and the type of targets you would expect missiles to be used against the effectiveness of the
45:53iraqi scuds is undermined even further by the fact that u.s forces in the gulf have deployed the
45:58patriot air defense missile system the patriot missile has the capability to shoot down missiles like
46:03the scud in some cases so this whole issue of accuracy is one of the reasons that the iraqis have
46:10been
46:10very interested in developing chemical warheads to place on the scuds a chemical warhead has a larger
46:16footprint meaning that it covers a much larger area than a conventional high explosive warhead would now the
46:22problem is is that the soviets haven't been willing to sell the iraqis the basic structure of a chemical
46:27warhead even though the iraqis have the chemicals themselves and it's not at all clear that the iraqis
46:33have the technological capability to develop the proximity fuses and other sensors that are needed to
46:38make an effective chemical warhead for a missile in contrast to the inaccurate scud american forces in the gulf
46:47have long-range missiles such as the land-based army tackems and the sea-based tomahawk cruise missile
46:53which offer far greater accuracy
47:11the great advantage of tomahawk is it's fairly stealthy and it's fairly cheap compared to an
47:16airplane plus it should be quite accurate so the stealthiness means that it probably wouldn't be
47:22detected coming out unlike an airplane launched from even a carrier tomahawk is launched from a
47:28surface ship or a sub which the iraqis may not be tracking all the time especially if it's a sub
47:34therefore it can arrive from an unexpected direction and probably won't be detected through most of its
47:40travel because it's so small so what you have is a weapon coming in they probably don't expect
47:47coming in to attack a target from an unexpected place like say from the rear so the target probably
47:53isn't protected in any way now the the downside of it is that tomahawk is not that large a missile
47:58so
47:58it doesn't have that large a warhead so maybe you're talking about 500 pounds of warheads something like
48:03that but on some kinds of targets 500 pounds is quite enough to ruin them say a radar station
48:11uh an airplane in a revetment something like that also some versions of tomahawk carry bomblets which
48:18they can screw over an area or they can be programmed to drop bomblets at intervals say to destroy airplanes
48:24down the road for revetments
48:54one iraqi weapon which has caused great alarm is the chemical warfare threat the iraqis have used
49:01chemical weapons on a scale not seen since the first world war iraqis have been interesting in chemical
49:09weapons for a long time as part of an overall program of searching for unconventional weapons
49:14i mean they're developing nuclear they're developing biological and they're developing chemical
49:20that tendency got reinforced by the need to rely on any kind of weapon available against the iranians in
49:27the early stages of the war after the iranians recovered and started pushing the iraqis back the iraqis
49:36were desperate so they looked for any means possible to try to halt these mass infantry assaults that
49:43the iranians were putting together and chemical weapons looked like a very useful way of dealing
49:48with that especially since in the beginning the iranians didn't have the defenses necessary to
49:52to protect against chemical attack they continued using chemicals during the war
50:02the intensity would vary from time to time by the end of the war it appears as though
50:08the iraqis viewed it as just another weapon that was part of the overall arsenal so in that sense
50:14i don't think they differentiate it the same way we do for us it's a special weapon for them it's
50:20something that is potentially available you know at the army and maybe even division level
50:41the opposing forces in the gulf are armed with a remarkable assortment of high-tech weapons
50:48yet in the end the outcome of modern warfare depends as much on the training and determination of the
50:55soldier as on the deadly new weapons of desert warfare
51:00so
51:11so
51:12so
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