NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/deserts/2119

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-21 | 5.3 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!usc!venice!doc.bmd.trw.com!system
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: alt.desert-storm
Subject: 37 Tomahawks score in Iraq
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 21 Jan 93 12:36:14 MST
Lines: 86

Just passing this along, FYI.


Subject: LARGEST-YET TOMAHAWK raid destroyed Iraqi nuclear facility;
Posted: Mon, Jan 18, 1993   4:31 PM PST              Msg: SPJD-5068-3957/20
From:   ("RFC-822": <moline(a)gumby.dsd.TRW.COM>, SITE:INTERNET)
Subj:   LARGEST-YET TOMAHAWK raid destroyed Iraqi nuclear facility;
        AMRAAM may have

  LARGEST-YET TOMAHAWK raid destroyed Iraqi nuclear facility; AMRAAM may have
missed MiG.

Largest-yet Tomahawk raid destroys Iraqi nuclear facility
     An Iraqi nuclear weapons facility was destroyed Sunday in the
largest salvo of Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles ever fired, and Allied
warplanes continued yesterday to strike air defense sites in Iraq's two no-fly
zones.
     Navy ships launched 45 TLAMs Sunday at 12:08 p.m. EST at the
Zaahfarinayah nuclear weapon facility, about 17 miles southeast of Baghdad,
and most of them hit it at 1:15 p.m., senior U.S. military officials said
yesterday at a Pentagon briefing. TLAMs were used because the air defense
network around Baghdad still is credible, and U.S. planners were reluctant to
expose fliers to it.
     The facility, comprising seven buildings, was not struck during the
Gulf War because "frankly, we did not know that's what it was for," a senior
military official said. He admitted that the existence and purpose of the
complex became clear only after tips and four U.N. weapon facility inspections
during the past year.
     Of the 45 TLAMs launched, one failed to transition to cruise flight
and was intentionally destroyed. One was shot down and fell into a hotel,
killing two civilians. Three more fell short of the target, in a nearby
orchard, and exploded. Another three fell inside the facility perimeter but
missed their targets. The remaining 37 scored hits, the official reported.
     Sunday's mission was the first in which a TLAM was felled by anti-
aircraft fire. The most TLAMs fired during the Gulf War was 40, against a
dispersed storage facility (DAILY, April 15, 1991).
     The facility struck on Sunday sustained "heavy" to "total"
destruction and will be useless for its intended purpose, the military
official said yesterday. It would, in the "post-(U.N.)inspection environment"
have been capable of making nuclear weapons, but there appears to have been no
fissile material at the site, he reported.
     At a flyaway cost of $1.35 million each, the TLAM raid cost $61
million.
     Yesterday between 03:45 and 04:00 EST-roughly noon in Iraq-Allied
planes struck at Iraqi command, control and communications sites and
surface-to-air missile emplacements that had been moved to the edge of the
no-fly zones north of the 36th parallel and south of the 32nd parallel. The
Iraqis were setting up "SAM traps" in which Iraqi planes would skirt the edge
of the no-fly zones to entice Allied aircraft into the area, then shoot at
them from the ground, officials said.
     The Iraqis illuminated a French Jaguar reconnaissance plane and a
Mirage F-1, a U.S. F-16 and a U.S. F-111 with SAM targeting radar, firing
anti-aircraft artillery at the latter two.
     In retaliation, 69 aircraft-18 "shooters" and 51 support planes-
attacked SA-2 and SA-6 anti-aircraft sites along the two perimeters and inside
the no-fly zones. Three of the targets were sites that were attacked but not
destroyed in last week's raid (DAILY, Jan. 15). Targets were struck more
successfully than in the previous attack, but the SA-3 mobile missiles were
not re-struck.
     "We chose not to attack them" because as long as they are on the
move and dispersed, they are nearly useless, the official said. Also, even if
they are set up and their field radars are turned on, "there's no air defense
network...for them to plug into," he added. Iraq's air defense system "is
neutralized," he said.
     The official said the Allies are not having trouble tracking the
mobile missiles. "Our continuity on their location is excellent," he said.
     The Pentagon gave sketchy details of an engagement on Sunday between
an F-15C and a MiG-29. The F-15, flying combat air patrol for F-4G Wild Weasel
defense suppression planes, was "bounced" by a MiG-29. The F-15 fired an
AIM-120 AMRAAM radar missile at the MiG while at about 35,000 feet and a range
of 27 miles. It's not clear if this first missile struck the MiG, but the F-15
pilot proceeded to fire another missile-this time an AIM-7 Sparrow-at a range
of 17 miles. While the MiG is carried as a kill, the evidence of its
destruction is inferred from smoke observed and scrambling of the Iraqi rescue
net. AF officials promised more details as they become available.


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