Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” - Prof. Joel Hayward's ...

Night of <strong>the</strong> Flying Hooligans
networks of mountain caves which provided shelters <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Soviets had a great deal of
difficulty using air power to attack such targets. 321
Bombers
While <strong>the</strong> Frogfoots, Fencers <strong>and</strong> Fishbeds were pressing home <strong>the</strong>ir attacks on battlefield
targets, Badgers <strong>and</strong> Backfires traversed <strong>the</strong> Afghan skies. The Soviets bought <strong>the</strong>ir
Dalnaya Aviatsiya (long range avaition) heavy bombers to <strong>the</strong> war. The bread <strong>and</strong> butter
bomber for <strong>the</strong> conflict was <strong>the</strong> Tupolev Tu-16 (“Badger-A”) although later in <strong>the</strong> war,
<strong>the</strong>se were joined from 1987 by Tu-22M3 (“Backfire-c”) bombers from <strong>the</strong> 185th BAP
which flew from Mary AFB <strong>and</strong> saw particularly high use during <strong>the</strong> attempts to relieve
<strong>the</strong> siege at Khost.
The Badgers formed a key part of <strong>the</strong> Soviet political leadership’s strategy of smashing <strong>the</strong>
support structure which <strong>the</strong> Mujahideen were able to draw on from Afghanistan’s rural
population, in terms of food supply <strong>and</strong> shelter. Bombers were used for area attacks to wipe
swa<strong>the</strong>s of farml<strong>and</strong> off <strong>the</strong> map <strong>and</strong> to render <strong>the</strong>m unusable by dropping l<strong>and</strong>mines.
Lester Grau, a Military Analyst at Fort Leavenworth Foreign Military Studies Office <strong>and</strong>
an expert on <strong>the</strong> Afghan War, argues that: “<strong>the</strong> Soviets believed in Mao’s assertion that
<strong>the</strong> guerrilla is <strong>the</strong> fish that swims in <strong>the</strong> sea of <strong>the</strong> population. The Soviets intended to
drain <strong>the</strong> ocean.” 322 The aircraft were also tasked with hitting Mujahideen redoubts. For
example, on 21 April 1984, during <strong>the</strong> Panjshir-7 offensive against Massoud’s Jamiaiti-
Islami rebel group, 36 Badgers flew up to forty missions performing area attacks on <strong>the</strong>
valley. 323 The frequency of bomber attacks <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> damage <strong>the</strong>y inflicted, in addition to
o<strong>the</strong>r offensives performed in <strong>the</strong> valley, was sufficient to kill <strong>and</strong> displace large parts
of <strong>the</strong> Tajik population living <strong>the</strong>re <strong>and</strong> destroyed <strong>the</strong>ir homes <strong>and</strong> farms. They did not
succeed in destroying Massoud’s rebel force <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Soviets eventually made a tacit truce
with <strong>the</strong> Lion of Panjshir, as Massoud was known, from 1986.
The VVS had contemplated using Su-24M (“Fencer-D”) aircraft to escort <strong>the</strong> bomber
force to perform “Wild Weasel” defence suppression missions using <strong>the</strong>ir Kh-58 antiradiation
missiles in <strong>the</strong> event of <strong>the</strong> bomber force being painted by Pakistani air search
radar. However, <strong>the</strong> idea was dropped when it became clear that <strong>the</strong> chance of <strong>the</strong> Kh-58
homing in on <strong>the</strong> air traffic control radar at ei<strong>the</strong>r Khost airfield or K<strong>and</strong>ahar airport was
too great a risk. Moreover, hitting a Pakistani radar installation with a Soviet missile was
seen as politically unacceptable given <strong>the</strong> international outcry which it would certainly
bring. That said, bomber crews were told that in <strong>the</strong> event of damage by a missile, <strong>the</strong>y
should try to bail out over Pakistan ra<strong>the</strong>r than Afghanistan given that <strong>the</strong>ir chances of
survival at <strong>the</strong> h<strong>and</strong>s of <strong>the</strong> vengeful Mujahideen were reckoned to be slim. Head for
136
<strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong>, <strong>Insurgency</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> “War on Terror”