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| Formally beginning with the [[Iraq|Iraqi]] invasion of [[Kuwait]] on August 2, 1990, and ending with the cease-fire on 6 April 1991, the '''Iraq War''' was preceded by the [[Iran-Iraq War]], with tensions following that conflict's end in 1988, and followed by new tensions culminating with the U.S.-led [[Gulf War]] in 2003. The Gulf War involved the occupation of Kuwait and Kuwaiti resistance, the defense of [[Saudi Arabia]] by a growing coalition led by the [[United States]], an intensive air campaign reducing Iraq's military, and a ground campaign that ejected the Iraqis and led to a cease-fire. Following the cease-fire was a period of interactions with a truculent Iraq, ensuring the elimination of its [[weapons of mass destruction]] and enforcing "no fly zones" in the North and South of Iraq. Eventually, Iraq was invaded in the 2003 [[Iraq War]], with the disarming of the regular Iraqi military, the overthrow of [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government, and an open-ended occupation and attempts at [[peace operations|nation-building]].
| | The '''Gulf War''' was a military operation by the United States and 41 allied nations against Iraq, in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990. Days later, under the codename of Operation Desert Shield, the coalition began a buildup of forces in Saudi Arabia. The allied offensive, codenamed Operation Desert Storm, was launched on 17 January 1991 with aerial bombing of Iraq. Desert Storm culminated with an invasion of Kuwait by ground forces on 24 February 1991. The country was soon liberated and the conflict ended four days later on 28 February. |
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| The war was notable for the extremely high level of technology used by the Coalition, with lopsided victories in every tactical engagement. Coalition combat casualties were minimal, the number from [[fratricide]] and non-battle accidents comparable to those inflicted by the Iraqis. The war was also notable for not creating a clear peace, although the politics of the region prevented a replacement of the Hussein government.
| | During the five-week bombardment, Iraqi president [[Saddam Hussein]] ordered the firing of SCUD missiles against Israel, which was not a member of the coalition. Saddam hoped that an Israeli response would split the coalition by alienating its Muslim-majority countries. However, the provocation failed as the Israelis did not retaliate and few Islamic countries sided with Iraq. |
| ==Background==
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| Leading up to the Iraqi invasion was a period of brinksmanship and diplomatic miscommunication starting not long after the end of the [[Iran-Iraq War]].
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| ===Hussein-Glaspie meetings===
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| On July 25, 1990, U.S. [[Ambassador]] to Iraq, [[April Glaspie]], met with Saddam Hussein. There are different accounts of whether Saddam was warned not to open hostilities, or if things could have been construed as the U.S. remaining neutral. Iraq had issued a transcript that suggested that the U.S. gave no strong warning. The ''New York Times'' reported that U.S. State Department issues, on receiving Glaspie's account, were unclear how strong a warning had been given, but that Administration sources said they did not want to make an issue of it at the time, because that might interfere with coalition-building. <ref name=NYT1991-03-22>{{citation
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| | first= Thomas L.| last = Friedman
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| | journal = New York Times
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| | title = After the War; U.S. Explains View on Envoy to Iraq
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| | date =22 March 1991
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| |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFDF1030F931A15750C0A967958260}}</ref>
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| In the hearing, Representative Lee H. Hamilton, (Democrat, Indiana) the Ambassador if she had ever told Saddam that the U.S. would fight if Iraq invaded, and she said she did not explicitly do so. In response to Hamilton's question about his being deterred, she said: " I told him we would defend our vital interests. He complained to me for one hour about fleet movements and American neo-imperialism and militarism. He knew perfectly well what we were talking about, and it would have been absolutely wrong for me, without consulting with the President, to inform anybody of a change in our policy. Our policy was that we would defend our vital interests. It's up to the President to decide how we would do it. Saddam Hussein, who is a man who lives by the sword, believed that we were going to do it by the sword."
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| ===Specific indications of imminent invasion===
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| U.S. intelligence moved to a specific attack warning on August 1. <ref name=GW1995>{{citation
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| | first1 = Michael R. | last1 = Gordon | first= Bernard E. | last = Trainor
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| | title = The Generals' War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf
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| | publisher = Little, Brown | year = 1995}}</ref>
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| ==The Iraqi Government and Military==
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| Iraq's civilian, security, and military apparatus was under the strongly centralized control of Saddam Hussein and his immediate circle, many of whom came from clansmen from [[Tikrit]], Iraq. As such, Hussein was the [[center of gravity]] of the entire Iraqi structure.
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| ===KARI: Iraqi air defense===
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| French Thomson-CSF had built what appeared to be an extensive [[integrated air defense system]] (IADS) for Iraq, called KARI<ref>The French word "Irak" spelled backwards</ref>. The Iraqis, however, used it with a more Soviet doctrine that discouraged local decisionmaking.
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| The overall defense had three levels:
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| #National/strategic, operated by the Iraqi Air Force
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| #Key point defense, operated by the [[Republican Guard]]
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| #Mobile, operated by the Iraqi Army
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| Iraqi air defense weapons and infrastructure were substantial,; their training and doctrine were the most limiting factors.<ref name=Vallance>{{citation
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| | title = Air Power in the Gulf War - The Conduct of Operations
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| | first = Andrew | last = Vallance
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| | publisher=Royal Air Force
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| | url = }}</ref> The Iraqis began with:
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| *the KARI IADS
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| *roughly 7,000 SAMs
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| *10,000 anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) guns.
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| *Aircraft including Mirage F1, Su-24, MiG-25 and MiG-29
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| *twenty four very large and heavily fortified main operating bases and a further thirty major dispersal airfields. "virtually impossible to close for an extended period even with advanced weapons and large numbers of aircraft."
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| {| class="wikitable"
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| |-
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| ! Category
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| ! Quantity
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| ! Type(s)
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| |-
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| | KARI [[IADS]]
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| | --
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| | French and Russian electronics, mostly Russian doctrine
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| |-
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| | [[surface-to-air missile]]s
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| | Approximately 7,000
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| | Soviet [[SA-2 GUIDELINE]], [[SA-3 GOA]], [[SA-5 GAMMON]], [[SA-6 GAINFUL]];
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| |-
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| | [[anti-aircraft artillery]]
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| | Approximately 10,000
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| | -
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| | [[Fighter aircraft]]
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| | French [[Mirage F-1]]; Soviet [[MiG-25]],[[MiG-29]]
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| |}
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| If the Allied numerical superiority over the Iraqi air forces was very great, their technological superiority in terms both of platforms and weapons was even more marked. At the outbreak of hostilities, the technological level of Iraqi order of battle was variable. Although the Iraqis possessed advanced aircraft, perhaps half of their Air Force's front line consisted of variants of obsolescent MiG and Sukhoi designs.
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| (According to the IISS Military Balance 1990/1991 the Iraqi Air Force order of battle in Autumn 1989 consisted of two squadrons of bombers equipped with eight Tu-22s, four Tu-16s and four Chinese H-6Ds; Twenty two squadrons of fighter ground attack aircraft (equipped with ninety MiG-23BNs, sixty four Mirage F-1s, thirty Su-7s, seventy Su-20s, sixteen Su-24s and sixty Su-25s) and seventeen squadrons of air defence fighters (equipped with twenty five MiG-25s, forty J-7s, one hundred and fifty MiG-21s, thirty Mirage F-1s and thirty MiG-29s).
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| ====Strategic====
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| Early warning radars, at this level, included the [[SPOON REST radar|SPOON REST]], [[SQUAT EYE radar|SQUAT EYE]] and [[FLAT FACE radar]].
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| ==Iraqi invasion of Kuwait==
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| [[Image:DIA-InvasionOfKowait.gif| thumb| [[air assault]] and armored movements]]
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| ==Defense of Saudi Arabia==
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| It took negotiation at the highest levels before the Saudis agreed to have foreign troops in their country.
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| Once there was approval, the first units that arrived were [[United States Air Force]] [[F-15 Eagle]] air superiority fighters and [[E-3 Sentry]] early warning [[radar]] and air battle command post aircraft. The Saudis themselves operated versions of both aircraft types. There appears to have been initial surprise by the Saudis on the size of the ground support organization needed just for these aircraft.
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| [[Aircraft carrier]]s and warships capable of launching [[cruise missile]]s deployed to international waters. The first significant land forces unit was the U.S. [[82nd Airborne Division]]. The 82nd was variously called a tripwire, or, more cynically, a "speed bump", as a paratroop division could not have directly fought Iraqi armored units. Until U.S. armored units, such as the [[24th Infantry Division]] could arrive, the 82nd could only stay in light contact with Iraqi units, with carrier aircraft being the major weapon.
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| Had Saddam chosen to move immediately into Saudi Arabia, especially for a short distance, little could stop him until more forces arrived. His thinking has never really been explained.
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| ==Attempts to prevent all-out hostilities==
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| Following the invasion, there were a number of diplomatic initiatives to find a peaceful solution, and hopes that the formation of what became a 34-nation coalition might give second thoughts to Saddam Hussein. <ref name=UNchron>{{citation
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| | journal =UN Chronicle
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| | date = June, 1991
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| | title = War in Persian Gulf area ends; Iraq accepts UN cease-fire, demand for reparations, but calls Council resolution 'unjust.'
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| | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_n2_v28/ai_10977797/print?tag=artBody;col1}}</ref>
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| The United Nations, in an unprecedented way, had played a crucial role throughout the eight-month international crisis, which began on 2 August 1990 when Iraq invaded, occupied and annexed its neighbour--the tiny, oil-rich State of Kuwait--calling it an "integral part" of Iraq.
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| After the Iraqi invasion but before Coalition combat operations began, the [[UN Security Council]], with majority votes, adopted 15 resolutions related to the crisis, among other things: condemning the initial invasion; calling for Iraqi troop withdrawal and protection of prisoners of war, diplomas and civilians; imposing strong, mandatory, comprehensive economic sanctions against Iraq until it complied with its demands; arranging for aid to innocent victims of the conflict and countries economically affected by the embargo; and setting a deadline before authorizing the use of "all necessary means" to restore international peace and security in the area.
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| The deadline passed. And a seven-week war took place--waged by a coalition of troops representing 34 nationalities--to oust Iraq from Kuwait.
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| ==Operations against Iraq==
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| ===Planning===
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| GEN Schwarzkopf asked for assistance in planning an air counterattack, and COL [[John Warden III]] presented the original draft concept for the 1991 [[Gulf War]] air campaign to GEN (ret.) [[Chuck Horner]], commanding Schwarzkopf's air component (CENTAF) for [[United States Central Command]]. According to a book by Horner (coauthored by [[Tom Clancy]]), Horner found his personality immediately clashed with Warden's, although there wee good ideas in the presentation. <ref name=ClancyHorner>{{citation | title =Every Man a Tiger: The Gulf War Air Campaign
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| | first1 = Tom | last1 = Clancy |first2 = Chuck | last2 = Horner
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| | publisher = Putnam Adult
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| | year = 1999}}</ref> Sound thinking was involved, one member of the Checkmate. [[David Deptula]], teamed stayed in Saudi Arabia, and now is himself a lieutenant general, and Deputy Chief of Staff for [[C3I-ISR|Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance]], [[United States Air Force]]. Horner looked further for a compatible air operations planners, and selected [[Buster Glosson]].
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| The problems first seemed a matter of personalities. GEN [[H Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.]], commanding [[United States Central Command]] during the Gulf War, spoke well of Warden's original air war concepts.<ref name=Schwarzkopf>{{citation
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| | first = H Norman, Jr. | last = Schwarzkopf
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| | title = It Doesn't Take a Hero
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| | publisher = Bantam
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| | year = 1992}}</ref> Schwarzkopf did express concern that Warden saw the air component winning the war, and did not provide enough support to land forces.
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| ===Initial strikes===
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| By the time combat started, the Coalition had approximately 2,400 aircraft based either within the theatre of operations or close enough to be capable of projecting power into it. In contrast, the Iraqis had around 650.
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| Most of the initial air activity was aimed at [[suppression of enemy air defense]], disrupting the leadership and its communications, and WMD targets. The first shots to hit Iraq came from U.S. Army [[AH-64 Apache]] attack helicopters, led to an early warning radar station on the Saudi border by [[U.S. Air Force]] [[MH-53|MH-53 PAVE LOW]] special operations helicopters.
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| With some limited exceptions on the outskirts, only [[stealth]] [[F-117]] aircraft flew into the Baghdad area, along with cruise missiles fired from ships and submarines in international waters, as well as from [[B-52]] bombers flying 36-hour round trip missions from their U.S. bases. Non-stealthy aircraft, however, ranged all over Iraq, simply avoiding the strongest air defenses in Baghdad.
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| Other than flying into the teeth of the Baghdad IADS, Coalition warplanes attacked all over Iraq and Kuwait, the Arab and Canadian pilots primarily in Kuwait alone. It may have seemed cheering to the Baghdad air defenders when they finally saw aircraft targets and turned on their targeting radars. What they were seeing, however, was a large proportion of all the drone aircraft in the U.S. Air Force and Navy inventory. Once the fire control radars revealed themselves, large numbers of SEAD aircraft on the outskirts of Baghdad showered those radars with [[AGM-88 HARM]] [[anti-radiation missile]]s.
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| ==SCUD surprises==
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| Iraq was known to have both imported versions of the Soviet [[SS-1 SCUD]] [[ballistic missile]], as well as domestic clones and derivatives. The derivatives gave up already small payload for increased range, and usually with reduced accuracy. U.S. intelligence knew about most of the fixed SCUD bases, but badly underestimated the number of mobile launchers and the skill of their crews.
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| The concern was not so much that the SCUD was a truly dangerous weapon. It was at the level of sophistication of a World War II [[V-2]] missile, considered to operate with adequate accuracy if it could hit something as small as a metropolitan area. Had it had a [[nuclear weapon|nuclear warhead]], the power of the warhead could have compensated for the inaccuracy -- but the Iraqis did not have any. There was also concern that they mught have [[chemical weapon|chemical]] or [[biological weapon|biological warheads]], but, again, while they had a WMD development program, they had not worked out the details of weaponizing. As one example, while a ton of [[nerve agent]] in a warhead is frightening, the reality is that it cannot simply be burst with an explosive charge and expected to have a tactical effect. If for no other reason, nerve agents are inflammable and a burster charge may simply cause them to burn harmlessly.
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| ===The real danger===
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| Given that the SCUD family were merely psychological weapons that still could cause casualties, when Iraq started shooting SCUDs at Israel, there was intense Israeli political reaction. At first, the Israelis demanded the right to go after the launchers, but there was very real concern that the overt participation of Israel could split off the Arab members of the Coalition.
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| ===Countermeasures===
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| ====Detection====
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| U.S. [[Defense Support Program]] (DSP) early warning satellites, which detected sudden [[electro-optical MASINT#Space-based Staring Infrared Sensors|heat bursts]] such as that generated by a missile launch, did detect the SCUD launches, and sent the information to the strategic warning center in [[Cheyenne Mountain]], Colorado. The information was then radioed, on a high-priority basis, to the theater of operations.
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| What remains somewhat unclear is whether the DSP satellites only gave a general warning, or if they located the launch points with enough precision so that special operations troops and attack aircraft had a chance to get to the launch site and destroy the launcher, before the Iraqis moved it.
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| ====Ground and air operations====
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| During the 1991 Gulf War, British [[SAS]] and [[United States Army Special Forces]] units were sent on SR to find mobile Iraqi [[SCUD]] launchers, originally to direct air strikes onto them. When air support was delayed, however, the patrols might attack key SCUD system elements with their organic weapons and explosives.
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| During this conflict, the US senior commanders, [[Colin Powell]] and [H Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.]], were opposed to using ground troops to search for Iraqi mobile Scud launchers. This was a part of Schwarzkopf's greater disdain for special operations. Under Israeli pressure to send its own SOF teams into western Iraq, and the realization that British SAS were already hunting Scuds, US Secretary of Defense [[Dick Cheney]] proposed using US SR teams as well as SAS
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| <ref name=GW1995 /><ref name=Rosenau>{{citation
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| | url = http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1408/MR1408.ch2.pdf
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| | publisher = RAND Corporation
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| | author = Rosenau, William
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| | year = 2000
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| | title = Special Operations Forces and Elusive Enemy Ground Targets: Lessons from Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War. U.S. Air Ground Operations Against the Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1966-1972
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| | accessdate = 2007-11-11
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| }}</ref>
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| On February 7, US SR teams joined British teams in the hunt for mobile Scud launchers
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| <ref name=Ripley>{{cite web
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| | url = http://www.cdiss.org/documents/uploaded/Scud%20Hunting%20-%20BM%2018.pdf
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| | title = Scud Hunting: Counter-force Operations against Theatre Ballistic Missiles
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| | author = Ripley, Tim
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| | publisher = Centre for Defence and International Security Studies, Lancaster University
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| | accessdate = 2007-11-11
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| }}</ref>. Open sources contain relatively little operational information about U.S. SOF activities in western Iraq. Some basic elements have emerged, however. Operating at night, Air Force [[CH-53 Sea Stallion| MH-53J Pave Low]] and Army [[CH-47 Chinook| MH-47E]] helicopters would ferry SOF ground teams and
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| their specially equipped four-wheel-drive vehicles from bases in
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| Saudi Arabia to Iraq
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| <ref name=Waller>{{cite book
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| | author =Douglas C. Waller
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| | title = The Commandos: The Inside Story of America’s Secret Soldiers
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| | publisher = Dell Publishing
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| | year = 1994
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| }}</ref>.
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| The SOF personnel would patrol during the night and hide during the day. When targets were discovered, [[United States Air Force]] [[Combat Control team]]s accompanying the ground forces would communicate over secure radios to [[E-3 Sentry]] airborne command posts.
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| ====Ballistic missile defense====
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| In principle, the available version of the [[United States Army]] [[MIM-104 Patriot]] [[surface-to-air missile]] had a capability against short-range ballistic missiles. Patriots were deployed in Saudi Arabia, but, as an emergency measure to mollify the Israelis, several batteries were sent to Israel.
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| There were reports, at the time, that the Patriots were stopping every SCUD, and later reports they had no effect at all. The answer is somewhere in between. Part of the problem was the SCUDs, and especially the SCUD derivatives, tended to break up in flight. The missile would home on the larger pieces of fuel tank, rather than the actual warhead.
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| In the most serious incident, where a single SCUD hit a U.S. barracks in Dharain, killing 28 and wounding over 100 soldiers, it was later found that a software bug had caused the Patriot system to decide that particular SCUD was not a threat, and it was not engaged. The software fix was known, but simply was not installed on the launchers and radars protecting Dharain.
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| ==Khafji: an attempted counteroffensive==
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| ==Liberation of Kuwait==
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| ==Cease-fire and dispositions==
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| ==References==
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| {{reflist|2}}
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