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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 17 2001
Attack on Iraq
Laser missiles allow high-altitude attack
BY LINUS GREGORIADIS
RAF Tornados, American F16s and carrier-based F14s and F18s were used as the
strike aircraft in yesterday’s raids.
Six Tornado GR1s based in Kuwait dropped Paveway laser-guided missiles, which
can be accurate to within a few yards from an altitude of up to 35,000ft.
In addition to the 24 American and six RAF aircraft that carried out the
attacks, another 50 aircraft were understood to have been involved in the
operation, including one or two RAF Tornado F3s, which escorted the planes,
and two VC10 tankers.
Each of the Kuwait-based GR1s, which can fly at 600mph with a normal payload
and arrive over Iraqi targets within minutes, can carry up to three Paveway
missiles. The aircraft is also fitted with two Sidewinder air-to-air missiles
and two 27mm Mauser cannons for defensive use.
GR1 bombers were also involved in an attack on Iraqi sites near Baghdad at
the end of 1998 and the beginning of 1999.
During the Gulf War the GR1 was used for some of the most dangerous missions
when it flew at low altitude to bomb runways. The aircraft were equipped with
JP 233 runway denial bombs which scattered explosive charges designed to make
enemy airfields unusable.
The aircraft had the highest casualty rate of any warplane. Six were lost
within the first four days. Four crew members were killed and four were
captured.
In yesterday’s attack the laser-guided missiles, which cost £22,000 each,
enabled British pilots to fly at higher altitudes than they could during the
Gulf War ten years ago. Low-flying tactics were blamed for the loss of the
six jets.
John Nichol, a former Gulf War Tornado navigator, told Sky News last night
that the attack amounted to a “pretty strong message from Washington”. He
said that attacks occurred on a daily basis in Iraq but were often not widely
reported. “What is going on here is that we have a new Administration in
America and this is about using the big stick, as it were.”
“This is saying there is somebody new on the block and we are going to deal a
little bit more aggressively with outrages in Iraq,” he said.
During airstrikes in December 1998, Tornado GR1s used 1,000lb Paveway 2 bombs
on raids on concrete command-and-control bunkers.
The Tornados, which are currently the subject of a £1billion upgrade, were
flown in pairs, one being equipped with a thermal imaging airborne laser
designator to pinpoint the target.
The versatile F16 fighter, which can fly at 1,500 mph, can perform much
tighter turns than RAF Tornados. It is manufactured by Lockheed Martin and
can be armed with Harm and Strike anti-radar missiles.
>From April 1999 to March last year RAF pilots flew a total of 2,683 sorties
in the no-fly zones, 2,233 of which were in the southern zone.
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