lrb@hpfcso.fc.hp.com (Larry Bruns) (01/27/91)
From: lrb@hpfcso.fc.hp.com (Larry Bruns) What kind of portable Surface-to-Air Missiles does Iraq have? The reason I ask: Supposedly one of the main reasons that the Afghan mujahadeen were able to finally gain the initiative after many years of Soviet advances was the Reagan Admin's decision to provide them with shoulder-fired SAMs. Up until then, the Soviet air superiority was unchallenged, thus severely limiting the daytime operations of the rebels. But once they got the SAMs (smuggled in at night from Pakistan on donkey-back over narrow mountain trails), the Soviet planes started going down in significant numbers. Rather than descend to a low enough altitude where their aim would be effective, the pilots learned to protect themselves from the SAMs by dropping their bombs hurriedly from a high altitude and not waiting around to verify the results. As a result their bombing did little or no damage and their effective air superiority was greatly reduced. How does this apply to the coming "ground phase" of Desert Storm? When we start doing low-level air attacks on their troops, their artillery, their tanks, etc., are lone Iraqi infantrymen with shoulder-fired SAMs going to do us in? Would someone with access to military reference books please tell us: -How many and what type of SAMs is Iraq estimated to have? -How do these SAMs compare in quality to what we gave the Afghans? -How do our Warthogs, helicopters, bombers, etc. compare to what the USSR used against the Afghans? (What I am interested in here is: do our planes have built-in defenses against SAMs? Or can they accomplish their objectives flying at a high altitude out of harm's way - due to superior targeting equipment perhaps - unlike the Russians, who were unable to do so?) Thank you!