02.03.2015 Views

JP 3-01 Countering Air and Missile Threats - Defense Innovation ...

JP 3-01 Countering Air and Missile Threats - Defense Innovation ...

JP 3-01 Countering Air and Missile Threats - Defense Innovation ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Appendix D<br />

Gulf War<br />

The initial hope of the planners in Riyadh that heavy attacks on the fixed<br />

Scud sites during the opening hours of the air campaign would largely<br />

eliminate Iraq’s capability to launch tactical ballistic missiles against<br />

Israel or regional members of the US-led Coalition proved to be illusory.<br />

On the night of 16-17 January 1991, the fixed Scud launchers in western<br />

Iraq functioned as “decoys” that diverted attention away from the mobile<br />

launchers that had already deployed to their wartime “hide” sites, <strong>and</strong> the<br />

first of Iraq’s extended-range Scuds were fired at Israel the following<br />

night. Once Scuds started falling, first on Israel <strong>and</strong> then on Saudi Arabia<br />

two days later, the next best military option would have been to locate <strong>and</strong><br />

attack mobile launchers before they had time to fire. Soviet exercise<br />

patterns in central Europe with Scud-B’s <strong>and</strong> Iraqi practice during the<br />

Iran-Iraq War, indicated that if the Iraqis followed prior practices, there<br />

might be enough pre-launch signatures <strong>and</strong> time to give patrolling aircraft<br />

some chance of attacking mobile launchers before they fired. However,<br />

the Iraqis dramatically cut their pre-launch set-up times, avoided any prelaunch<br />

electromagnetic emissions that might give away their locations<br />

before launch, <strong>and</strong> seeded the launch areas with decoys (some of which<br />

were very high in fidelity)…most (<strong>and</strong> possibly all) of the roughly 100<br />

mobile launchers reported destroyed by Coalition aircraft <strong>and</strong> special<br />

operation forces now appear to have been either decoys, other vehicles<br />

such as tanker trucks, or other objects unfortunate enough to provide<br />

“Scud-like” signatures.<br />

SOURCE: Gulf War <strong>Air</strong> Power Survey, 1993<br />

framework for each in a generic fashion <strong>and</strong> serves as a foundation for an initial<br />

underst<strong>and</strong>ing of how missiles are employed. Specific analysis is required to apply this<br />

information to a particular missile system <strong>and</strong> country. The following vignette is a reminder<br />

that some “facts” should be verified, not simply accepted.<br />

D-10 <strong>JP</strong> 3-<strong>01</strong>

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!