The Persian Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm The Technological Aspects

The Persian Gulf War:Operation Desert StormThe Technological Aspects By: Jonathan Kurniawan and Justin Leong

Coalition Forces • The United Arab Emirates • The United Kingdom • The United States of America • Afghanistan • Argentina • Australia • Bahrain • Bangladesh • Belgium • Canada • Czechoslovakia • Denmark • Egypt • France • Germany • Greece • Hungary • Honduras • Italy • Kuwait • Morocco • The Netherlands • New Zealand • Niger • Norway • Oman • Pakistan • Poland • Portugal • Qatar • Saudi Arabia • Senegal • South Korea • Spain • Syria • Turkey

Iraqi Forces • Jordan • Yemen • Palestine Liberation Organization The Iraqis never really had military support. Only moral and economical support was given to Iraq to fight the war.

Overview of the War:The Invasion of Kuwait • After the Iran Iraq War, Iraq’s economy was low. • Seeing that the oil rich fields would help their economy, and claiming that Kuwait was a part of Iraqi history, Saddam Hussein decides to invade Kuwait. • August 2, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait by surprise.

Overview of the War:The Response • August 7, 1990: Operation Desert Shield initiated to protect Saudi Arabia from possible Iraq invasion • November 7, 1990: The United Nations allow the use of military force against Iraq if Iraq does not withdraw its forces from Kuwait. • January 16, 1991: Operation Desert Storm begins. A coalition of 36 different countries, including the U.S. prepares to liberate Kuwait. Along with the liberation, the bombing of Baghdad begins. The Air campaign starts • January 17, 1991: Iraq fires SCUD missiles at Iran hoping to bring them into the conflict. Iran luckily does not respond. • January 25, 1991: Iraq opens oil wells, polluting the Persian Gulf, and set fire to the oil fields. • February 23, 1991: The land war begins. • February 27, 1991: Iraq is defeated.

Overview of the War:The Aftermath • Though the coalition was successful at liberating Kuwait, there were many consequences: • Kuwait suffered greatly from the war Economically. • Like every war, there were casualties and many injuries. • Many people suffered from what was called “Gulf War Syndrome,” which was a collective group of medical ailments that affected many veterans of Operation Desert Storm • The oil fires that were ignited by the Iraqis greatly polluted the environment. • The oil that was dumped into the Persian Gulf greatly polluted the water.

The Coalition Troops employed were highly trained, yet they did not have too much field experience. Much of their victory was due to their more advanced technology than the Iraqis. Coalition vehicles were highly advanced than the old soviet-era vehicles used by the Iraqi’s. A large factor that destroyed coalition vehicles was friendly fire. Most coalition vehicles were lost to friendly fire. Ground Technology:Coalition Forces Troops Vehicles

Ground Technology:Iraqi Forces Troops Vehicles The Iraqi conscripts were men drafted in my the government. Some were trained, and from those few, many of them have experienced battle much more than the coalition forces. They had the advantage by fighting on their homeland and having more battle experience. Yet their main disadvantage was their lack of advanced technology. The Iraqi vehicles were not very advanced. They were old soviet-era tanks that were sold to them many years ago. Most of their vehicles consisted of transformed civilian vehicles that have machine and old age machinery. These vehicles hardly stood a chance against the more modern coalition vehicles.

Air Technology:Coalition Forces • The coalition forces had a great advantage over the Iraqis with more modern and advanced aircraft. The coalition and achieved and maintained air superiority throughout the war. Coalition bombers ran around the clock air strikes on targets in the battlefield. Anti-air was a very little problem since coalition aircrafts were able to jam signals and destroy the anti-air pieces before being shot upon. Some also say that computer based anti-air units were destroyed by computer viruses sent by the US. Air support assisted the ground forces. Carrier-based aircrafts also took part and were an advantage to the coalition effort. Aircraft carriers located in the Persian Gulf launched several planes to destroy artillery pieces, bunkers, and support the ground troops during fighting. • One famous attack carried out by the coalition forces was the “Road of Death.” When the war was near an end, the Iraqis looted Kuwait and fled back to Iraq. Several U.S. planes dropped strings of bomb upon the fleeing Iraqis in punishment for looting Kuwait. Because of the large amounts of damage and the deaths of the Iraqi’s, this area was nick named “The Road of Death.”

Air Technology:Iraqi Forces • Not much is known about the role Iraqi aircraft played in the 1991 conflict, but the Iraqi planes were definitely not a threat to the coalition force. The Iraqi’s possessed a wide variety of antique and modern aircrafts. Only about half of their aircrafts were able to take off into the air. Even so, most were shot down soon by coalition anti-aircraft fire. For the few planes that were able to take off survive or pass the anti-air fire, they had no chance against the coalitions advanced aircrafts. Iraq’s planes were easily shot down by the coalitions more advanced war planes.

Naval Technology:Coalition Force • During the beginnings of the air campaign, and the ground war, ships were used to assist in the attacks. Even before the war started, freight ships were used to transport vehicles, aircrafts, and troops to the Middle East. In the air campaign, aircraft carriers housed, repaired, and launched aircrafts to fight against the Iraqis. During the ground attack, the old WWII battleship, the USS Missouri, sieged the coasts where Iraqi installations were located. Beach head landings were conducted to trick Iraq forces into a WWII D-Day invasion. Iraq concentrated its forces along the coasts of the Persian Gulf.

Naval Technology:Iraqi Forces • Nothing is known about the Iraqi navy. Most likely they did not possess one. If they did, it was not employed. The Iraqis didn’t expect a naval attack and had to react by concentrating ground forces along the coastlines, only to be sieged by the gigantic cannons of the USS Missouri.

Bibliography • June A. English, Thomas D. Jones. Scholastic Encyclopedia of the United States at War. Scholastic Inc., 1998 • Encarta Online - http://encarta.msn.com/ • Army Technology - http://www.army-technology.com/ • Naval Technology - http://www.naval-technology.com/ • Military Analysis Network - http://fas.org/man/

The Persian Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm The Technological Aspects