TIME: Desert Storm - The War in the Persian Gulf/TIME: Desert Storm - The War in the Persian Gulf.iso/time2_04/cf040075.t07

Text File | 1991-06-27 | 8.2 KB | 194 lines

DATE: JAN. 24, 1991      18:04               REPORT: 2
TO: SPL
FOR:
CC:
BUREAU: PARIS
BY: FARAH NAYERI
IN:
SLUG: ALLIED CONTRIBUTION

 Thursday was a threshold date in France's Gulf war
effort: for the first time, French warplanes entered
Iraqi borders on one of their dawn raids. Until then, the
French air offensive had been confined to military
targets within Kuwait. When it appeared that France was
shying away from attacking Iraq, as the dovish defense
minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement (grave accent on second
eee) led everyone to believe last week, President
Mitterrand swooped in on Sunday with a televised
correction. Granted, France was not the most hawkish of
allies, but it was not going to rule out attacking Iraqi
territory. "Iraq's military-industrial complex must
naturally be destroyed," said Mitterrand. "The essential
target is the liberation of Kuwait, which implies, of
course, military operations in Iraq as well, since Kuwait
cannot be isolated from Iraq in terms of Iraqi air
forces."

 As if to prove the point, French Jaguar fighter-bombers
set out Thursday, sometime between seven and eight a.m.,
with Iraq in mind -- accompanied, this time, by allied
aircraft (no details given.) One squadron hit artillery
positions in southern Kuwait. The other attacked
mechanised positions of the Republican Guards, Saddam's
elite units, in Iraq, not far from the Kuwaiti border.
The chief spokesman of the French armed forces, General
Raymond Germanos, said at a briefing in Paris hours later
that the warplanes had used conventional bombs, as
opposed to precision or laser-guided missiles, in the
day's raids. As usual, he said, French aircraft met with
"significant" surface-to-air defenses, ranging from
cannons to Kalashnikhovs, but no air attacks from enemy
fighters, since, he pointed out, "Iraqi planes have not
been taking off from their shelters." French planes
returned safely to their Saudi base, unscathed, their
crews unharmed.

 The past five days had seen similar French sting
missions into Kuwait, all of which were carried out
"successfully" and without incurring damage or
casualties. On Saturday, a "large munitions depot"
located 30 kilometers south of Kuwait City was hit.
Later, it was revealed that the depot contained
French-supplied Exocet missiles which the Kuwaitis had
presumably left behind.

 On Sunday, 16 Jaguars set out for Kuwait, but their
mission was impeded by bad weather. Monday brought
similar weather problems. On Tuesday, French Jaguars
attacked a naval base in Kuwait City. And on Wednesday,
two Jaguar patrols destroyed surface-to-surface artillery
positions buried in desert sands west of Kuwait city.

 French military sources have had difficulty assessing
the success of their missions. The French armed forces
spokesman, General Germanos, said there were three ways
of checking whether the raids had been successful or not:
(a) via photographic equipment on board the aircraft, (b)
by flying subsequent missions, (c) by satellite, though
this was very much dependent on good weather, since a
cloud, even if it hung low, could impair vision. Bad
weather might explain the lack of feedback in recent days
on the missions flown so far by the French air fleet.

 Military officials at the highest level cannot ascertain
that the munitions depot attacked on Saturday really did
contain a stash of the lethal Exocet missiles. But press
reports and military photographs shown on television
maintain that they are. Jacques Isnard, the authoritative
defense correspondent of the daily "Le Monde," quoted air
force sources as saying that the Exocets hit in the
munitions depot were of the surface-to-surface variety
(used against warships) and numbered around 40.

 Thus, the French are in the embarrassing position of
seeing weapons systems they generously delivered to the
Iraqis (and Kuwaitis) being used against them. Witness
Iraqi fighters firing Exocets at allied warships in the
Gulf Thursday.

 The Exocet -- which, over the last decade was put to
ample use in the tanker war pitting Iraq against Iran,
and to strike the USS Stark, killing 33 U.S. servicemen
-- is not the only weapon which France and Iraq share.

 Another is the F1-CR, five of which France currently has
committed to the Gulf theater. The fighter's operations
have been limited to avoid it being confused with enemy
aircraft. But according to a French air force pilot
(Lieutenant-Colonel Guyot, editor of the air force
journal) the F1-CR's were abundantly used for
reconnaissance purposes before th war, and are still
operational. "They're astonishing planes," says he, "with
optical, infrared and radar capabilities."

 Another weapon of potentially dual use -- enemy and
allied -- is the AS 30 laser-guided missile, the
air-to-ground defense which the French used against the
munitions depot on Saturday. The AS 30 is guided by a
nacelle, fitted on the plane's underbelly, equipped with
the Automatic Tracking Laser Illumination System (ATLIS.)
The missile allows the destruction of hard, well-hidden
targets such as bridges, concrete shelters, dams, etc.
The ATLIS beams a laser at the target, and the missile
steers its way automatically to destination. Thanks to
the laser beam, the plane can be in stand-off position,
i.e. at an angle or distance from the target, evading
enemy air defenses. The missile can carry up to 1000
kilos of explosives.

 The AS 30 laser-guided missile cost France some 1.8
billion francs in research and development. Much of that,
it was hoped, would be earned back by the purchase of 586
such missiles by Saddam Hussein's government, which can
be fitted both under French Mirage F-1 fighter-bombers
and Soviet aircraft. A total of 240 such missiles are
said to be operational in Iraq today -- that's 60 more
than th French themselves have...

 FRENCH COMBAT AIRCRAFT AND ARMAMENTS IN THE GULF

 Not all of France's weaponry in the Gulf finds
duplicates in the enemy arsenal, of course. In terms of
air-to-ground defenses, combat aircraft, troop transport
and refueling planes, and helicopters, the French have
some original weaponry. Following is a list:

 AIR-TO-GROUND DEFENSES:

- AS 37 MARTEL: This is an anti-radar missile emitting
electromagnetic waves that intercept radar frequencies
and lead the missile straight to the enemy radar
antennae.

- BAT 120: A scatterbomb fastened to the belly of
aircraft in clusters of 1,000, which break up into metal
splinters when fired; used against troops or light
armored vehicles and other minor targets.

- BAP 100: A bomb used to blow up airstrips; after its
release, a parachute opens to slow it down; then the bomb
is propelled underground, blowing craters into the
concrete. Used successfully against the Chadian airfield
of Ouadi Doum in the mid-eighties.

 BELUGA or BLG 66: A cluster bomb composed of 151
66-millimeter grenades; can be used against troops,
tanks, or as a delayed- reaction device (sort of
timebomb.)

  COMBAT AIRCRAFT

- JAGUAR: The most active element in France's Gulf
operations, these fighter-bombers have proven their worth
in Mauritania (during the Sahara war), in Lebanon and in
Chad. Their advantage is that they can carry a very heavy
payload of weapons -- up to 3.5 tons. A few of them
regularly join U.S. Air Force exercises in the Nellis
airbase in Nevada. Press reports say the Jaguars can't
fly by night or in bad weather, and the planes'
performance over the last week would tend to confirm
that, but the French air force curtly denies this.

- MIRAGE 2000: These planes fly daily air defense
missions to protect allied aircraft. They can be equipped
with Magic 2 air-to- air winged missiles, guided by
infrared light beamed from the aircraft's nozzle; or with
Super 530D interception missiles, which can be fired from
all angles at enemy aircraft. The Magic 2 is better
suited for close combat than its counterpart, the Super
530D.

 TROOP TRANSPORT AND REFUELING AIRCRAFT

- C 135 FR: used for refueling in mid-flight.

- TRANSALL: used for troop, materiel and ammunition
transport.

 HELICOPTERS

- PUMAS: Two of these are deployed in the Gulf and used
for search and rescue purposes.