Desert Storm Facts

Found a good page with some facts regarding air-to-air combat during Desert Storm. Make sure you read the notes....


Desert Storm Air-to-Air Kills

fun read there Pyros~

14 Feb: Bennett-Bakke. This was the famous laser-guided-bomb kill. The helicopter was on the ground at the time that PACKARD 41 released the GBU-10, but took off while the bomb was in flight. The WSO kept lasing the helicopter anyway, and the bomb guided straight through the rotor disc, destroying the Hughes 500 instantly. The kill was witnessed by a Special Forces team on the ground

THAT would have been cool to see!

Ow, that gotta hurt for the Iraqi and his ego, hit by a bomb in flight.

It would have been nice if some AIM-120s had been used to shoot down some of the MiGs. Mostly sidewinders and sparrows though.

There are three interesting facts about combat aviation during Operation Desert Storm I should bring up:
1. Even though the F-117 had actually been first used in combat over Panama in late December 1989 after Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was accused by the George H.W. Bush administration of drug trafficking, the F-117's airstrikes against Iraqi military infrastructure in Operation Desert Storm were well-publicized because they marked the first time that a stealth aircraft was used to take down a formidable military force in war
2. Baghdad was surrounded by SAM-based air defenses several times denser than those used to defend Hanoi and Haiphong during the Vietnam War, and so EA-6B Prowler ECM aircraft and F-4G Wild Weasel aircraft were used to jam Iraqi anti-aircraft radars, effectively sparing so many combat planes of the USAF, RAF, and Royal Saudi Arabian Air Force from being shot down by Iraqi air defenses.
3. The B-52 bombers used in Operation Desert Storm had to fire their AGM-86 cruise missiles against Iraq high above the Arabian Peninsula because several B-52 crews faced the risk of capture by Iraqi forces if their aircraft were shot down over Iraq.