Two future military novel authors along with other SAS members ended up getting captured by the Iraqis while doing this in the Bravo Two Zero mission. MIM-104 Patriot antiballistic missiles made a go at stopping them, but faced with missiles that accidentally broke up on reentry and Saddam not aiming them at anything, they couldn't do much.Īttempts to find and destroy the launchers in Western Iraq had limited success, mainly because they were mobile. He hoped to shatter the UN coalition, many of whom didn't like Israel and might balk at helping defend it. Saddam, who understood the psychological impact of ballistic missiles even before they started falling on him, decided to launch modified "Scuds" at Israel and bring it into the war.
Comparisons of night-vision video footage to video games were abundant for a few years after, including by Terry Pratchett. They had not been used to this level before, leading to the war being called the first "computer war". The Gulf War was notable for the levels of use of precision-guided weapons. Some pilots ejected when they saw the enemy, and eventually the Iraqi Air Force left en masse for Iran, who said "Thanks for the planes" and duly confiscated them. to Saudi Arabia, firing cruise missiles, and going home, and Iraq's air defenses were crippled. An EF-111 got a kill without firing a shot, B-52s set the world record for a long-distance airstrike by flying from the U.S. Okay, the F-117 had already been revealed and taken part in the DEA operation that was Panama, but that had been easy. It basically lasted one night due to the Americans' secret weapon.
Iraq possessed one of the densest air defence networks in the world, which was centered around a French air defense system named "Kari". On 17 January 1991, Operation Desert Storm began. That meant, "Get out of Kuwait or face war." Saddam didn't get out, so he faced war.
was free to shift over an entire corps-sized formation from Germany to the Middle East.Īuthorizes Member States co-operating with the Government of Kuwait, unless Iraq on or before 15 January 1991 fully implements, as set forth in paragraph 1 above, the abovementioned resolutions, to use all necessary means to uphold and implement resolution 660 (1990) and all subsequent relevant resolutions and to restore international peace and security in the area With a troop drawdown happening in Europe, the U.S. built up a coalition of 34 countriesthe final total buildup of troops was over half a million, and six U.S. UN resolution after UN resolution calling for an Iraqi withdrawal were ignored, and the U.S. That operation was referred to in America as Operation Desert Shield. and allied move was to increase the defense of Saudi Arabia, moving aircraft there in case Saddam tried to make a move on that country too. He also thought that the Soviet Union would veto any attempt to take firm diplomatic action. note Glaspie would later claim that she had given no ambiguity in her statement, but for better or for worse, that's how Hussein interpreted it. Ambassador April Glaspie ("we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait") as a green light to launch a military invasion of Kuwait, a small emirate that borders Iraq. On 2 August 1990, Saddam Hussein, interpreted a comment by U.S. It is interesting to note, however, that many casual analysts and military fanboys see the poor performance of the Iraqi military's Soviet-produced equipment as definitive proof that the USA would have won the Cold War in Europe if it had been a conventional conflict this is in large part due to their enthusiasm for equipment and weapons at the expense of boring and irrelevant things like actual strategy or logistics. While Iraq used obsolescent export-quality Soviet equipment and some of its officers received training in the USSR, her forces were both grossly outnumbered and outclassed and did not use Soviet Operational Art. The Cold War was all but over by 1990, but the first Gulf War served as a demonstration of what the United States could have been capable of if things had gone hot in the 1990s or later. In fact, that is the third Gulf War and this is the second: The IranIraq War of the 1980s was originally called the Persian Gulf War because of its impact on shipping. If you are looking for what some refer to as "Gulf War II", then please see The War on Terror. Note: This article is about the 1990-1991 war in the Persian Gulf and Kuwait, also known as Operation Desert Storm.