In the early morning of September 17, after six days of preparation, the third phase of the Poei War, namely the ground war between the liberation of Kuwait and the attack on Iraq, began.

At 2 a.m., Ding Zhennan sent a signal that the combat operation had officially begun.

The first thing to carry out is still the early firepower preparations, with the aviation force fighting the main force.

Although the main force on the Posawan side is the Navy Aviation Corps and 6 carrier-based aircraft wings deployed on ground bases, the Air Force did not leave any hesitation and still left enough support aircraft, including 8 "Finger-8C" and dozens of large tankers equipped with hose refueling systems.

In addition, there are 3 "finger-10A".

In addition to the first one to be stationed in Khalid Military City and participated in the early strike operations, the other two were deployed last month.

Previously, these three joint command aircraft played a key role when seeking out the ballistic missile launcher that killed Iraq.

To be said, in the past month, finding ballistic missile launchers to eliminate Iraq has always been the number one mission of the Joint Force.

After the Air Force was completely defeated and the air defense system was destroyed, medium- and short-range ballistic missiles became the only counterattack weapon of the Hussein military government.

Of course, these thousands of ballistic missiles pose a huge threat.

In early August, the Iraqi army launched several missile attacks in succession, and targeted major cities such as the capital of Saudi Arabia.

In the Iran-Iraq War, more than 80% of the thousands of ballistic missiles fired by both sides were fired at each other's cities, and less than 20% were used to strike military targets.

Practical combat has long proved that these ballistic missiles with errors of hundreds of meters or even thousands of meters are not suitable for dealing with small point-shaped targets. The effect of attacking cities is more ideal, and attacking cities can hit the fighting spirit and confidence of the people of enemy countries.

Fortunately, during that time, the Imperial Air Force and Navy dispatched all their strength to destroy all fixed-deployment ballistic missile launchers and hundreds of ballistic missiles that had not been transferred, making Iraq lose its ability to launch large-scale missile attacks.

These ballistic missiles fired at Saudi Arabia either deviated from their target or were intercepted by "arrowmen".

However, the Iraqi army still has dozens of missile launch vehicles.

These missile launchers have become the main concern of the coalition forces.

On the night of August 13, Iraqi troops launched a sudden attack, and without any warning, launched a ballistic missile with a range of 900 kilometers from a launching position deployed in the northern part of the mainland to a coalition barracks near the border.

This camp is close to the border and is not within the protection of the "Arrowman".

At that time, the Imperial Air Force only deployed three sets of "Arrower" air defense systems in Saudi Arabia, protecting the capital Riyadh, the Khalid Military City where the coalition headquarters are located, and the also very important Daman Port. There is no extra "Arrower" system to protect the combat troops deployed at the forefront.

Besides, the Imperial Air Force’s development and procurement of the “Arrower” air defense system is not to protect field forces.

The key is that this ballistic missile did not deviate from its target.

This is a "Hussein" type ballistic missile that was imitated and produced on the basis of "Scud". In order to achieve a range of 900 kilometers, the warhead weighing 1 ton was reduced to less than 500 kilograms, and hundreds of kilograms of fuel were brought in, and almost no other changes were made.

In theory, the deviation of this missile in maximum range exceeds 500 meters, and may even reach 1,000 meters.

The result was that the missile directly hit the barracks with an area of ​​less than 100,000 square meters, and it happened to fall into the barracks area.

This missile killed more than 300 officers and soldiers, causing nearly a thousand injuries!

This is not all.

A week later, another Hussein missile was hit, and this time it hit a foreign affairs hotel in the city of Riyadh, less than 1,000 meters away from the Liangxia Embassy. In addition to causing hundreds of casualties, it also destroyed a large number of buildings and caused extremely bad effects.

After the incident, the king of Shaudi took his royal family away from the royal palace in the suburbs of Riyadh and hid in the desert.

About half a month later, the Imperial Air Force deployed a "Arrower" system and increased the hunting efforts of missile launchers, and the King of Saudi Arabia returned to Riyadh.

In fact, this missile is likely to be rushed to the Liangxia Embassy.

This attack actually proves that the "Arrower" is not a flawless anti-missile system, and it still has many flaws.

Although according to the news released by the Imperial Air Force, the "Arrower" targets medium- and short-range ballistic missiles with a range of less than 1,000 kilometers, with a single-shot interception rate of up to 80%, but in fact, even 40% of the total is not reached.

It is often necessary to use two "arrowmen" to intercept one missile to have a shooting down probability of about 60%.

Of course, it can also be said to be a difference in statistical caliber, that is, the Imperial Air Force has intercepted ballistic missiles and then deviated from the target. Many of these missiles actually deviated from the target because of too large errors.

In addition, the damage effect of the "Arrower" on ballistic missiles is not very ideal.

The most important thing is to use the fragment killing warhead used for air defense missiles, and rely on the fragments generated by the explosion to destroy the target.

It is enough to deal with aircraft that cost dozens of kilometers or even hundreds of kilometers away.

However, it is definitely not enough to deal with ballistic missiles that have reached the sky above the head and are diving down at 10 times or even 20 times the speed of sound.

Many of the intercepted "Scuds" and "Hussein" fell near the target even if they were hit by the "Arrower".

According to unconfirmed information, the missile that hit the "Imperial Hotel" in Riyadh has been intercepted. The one who hit the hotel was a fuel tank that fell off the body after being intercepted, and there was some toxic chemical fuel inside.

In any case, Iraq's ballistic missiles are indeed a major concern.

In order to deal with these ballistic missiles and to stabilize allies such as Saudi Arabia, the Imperial Air Force has invested dozens of "War-16A" specifically responsible for hunting ballistic missile launchers.

Of course, it also achieved very good results.

By September, in the first half of the month, the number of ballistic missile attacks had decreased significantly, less than one-third of that in August.

The key role is the "Finger-10A" joint command aircraft.

According to the battle report submitted by the Imperial Air Force, almost two-thirds of the missile launchers were discovered by "Finger-10A", and they guided the "Fighter-16A" to launch an attack.

Of course, the value of "referring to -10A" is more than that.

As the world's first joint command aircraft, the "Fing-10A" is an indispensable air command platform in joint air-ground operations vigorously promoted by the Empire.

To put it simply, "Finger-10A" is the link and bridge connecting the Air Force and the Army.

Although the "Finger-10A" is under the name of the Air Force, there are several Army officers responsible for coordination on each "Finger-10A".

Assisting the Army in winning ground wars is the number one mission of "Finger-10A".

As for guiding the Air Force's fighter jets and attack aircraft to perform ground strike missions, even if there is no "Finger-10A", "Finger-8C".

After entering the ground war stage, the value of "Finger-10A" is revealed.

More than three hours before dawn, more than 300 "War-12" and "Attack-5" and "Attack-6" dispatched by the Navy Air Force concentrated on bombing Iraqi troops entrenched in Kuwait and elite troops deployed in southern Iraq under the guidance of "Fing-10A".

Thousands of military targets were destroyed in just over three hours.

To be said, this is mainly due to the intelligence agencies.

Without accurate information, there is absolutely no way to achieve such a high strike efficiency.

This is also the main work of military intelligence agencies led by the Military Intelligence Agency and the Joint Force Intelligence Department in the past month.

Find and calibrate suspicious targets and confirm the nature of the suspicious targets.

In addition, it has a lot to do with the large-scale use of precision guided munitions.

Among the more than 300 fighter jets dispatched, half were "War-12", and almost all "War-12" used laser-guided bombs.

In fact, the "War-12" is equipped by the Imperial Navy aviation force and the only carrier-based aircraft that can use laser-guided bombs alone.

The key is actually the tactical reconnaissance pod jointly developed by the Air Force and the Navy.

One set of this tactical reconnaissance pod is two, one of which is equipped with a multi-spectrum camera, which can be used day and night, and can directly display the captured images on the screen of a combat aircraft with supporting equipment. The other one is equipped with a high-power laser indicator, which also has a range measurement function, which can illuminate targets 20 kilometers away, and the throwing distance of laser-guided bombs generally does not exceed 20 kilometers.

Now, only multi-purpose fighters such as "War-10", "War-12" and "War-16" can be used for the time being.

It is not because the tactical reconnaissance pod is too large, but the data bus needs to be supported. For old fighter jets and attack aircraft without data bus, the tactical reconnaissance pod cannot be used directly. Therefore, even if laser-guided bombs are mounted, other combat aircraft are required to cooperate.

That's why during the air strike stage, old attack aircraft such as "Ocamp-5" and "Ocamp-6" almost all use unguided bombs to fight. Even if laser-guided bombs are required, each two will form a formation, and one of them will specifically use laser indicators to illuminate the target.

To this end, the Imperial Navy specially developed a laser indicator pod that does not require a data bus.

The large-scale use of laser-guided bombs is also the experience of improving strike efficiency summarized by the Imperial Air Force in actual combat in the previous month.

In the battle to hunt missile launch vehicles, the "War-16A" mainly uses laser-guided bombs.

In addition, the Air Force also discovered that laser-guided bombs have the ability to deal with low-altitude and slow-flying targets.

According to the combat report, at least twice, the "War-16A" used laser-guided bombs to attack the enemy's helicopters and destroyed the helicopters. One of them was that the helicopter flew against the ground and at noon, the temperature on the desert surface was too high, which made the fighter missiles carried by the fighter unable to lock the helicopter. Then the pilot authorized the weapon operator in the back seat to launch an attack with the laser-guided bomb.

Of course, the greatest value of laser-guided bombs is actually to allow combat aircraft to drop bombs at medium and high altitudes that cannot be reached by small-caliber anti-aircraft guns and individual air defense missiles, and to ensure sufficient hit accuracy, and no longer need to take risks at low altitudes to improve hit accuracy.

What to say is the key.

In the past month, especially after the first phase of the air strike operation, almost all the combat aircraft lost by the coalition were shot down by small-caliber anti-aircraft guns or individual air defense missiles when flying at ultra-low or low altitudes, and almost all of them were ambushed.

Until now, the only air defense weapons that the Iraqi army can use are small-caliber anti-aircraft guns and individual air defense missiles.

That's why in late August, the Air Force clearly required that the flight altitude of all combat patrol missions should not be less than 6,000 meters, and the bomb drop height should not be less than 4,000 meters. After losing several fighter jets, the latter was also raised to 5,000 meters.

To put it bluntly, as long as you fly high enough, you don’t have to worry about being knocked down.

Of course, this also means that ground strike operations rely more on laser-guided bombs.

Bombs dropped at an altitude of 5,000 meters, even if bombs with wind bias correction ability are used, the deviation of their landing point may exceed 200 meters.

Fortunately, after the outbreak of the war, especially after the Imperial military increased its procurement scale, the price of laser guidance components had dropped.

Here, it must be admitted that the Imperial Air Force and the Navy Air Force did have foresight.

When developing guided weapons, the Air Force and HNA clearly require that the inventory of ammunition must be used, especially several standard caliber bombs.

The key is that the inventory is too large!

Before the Posa Bay War, there were about 16 million 500 kilogram bombs in stock, and 20 million 250 kilogram bombs.

If you want to say it, this is still the historical low of inventory.

Because the ammunition consumption was amazing and no one believed it would end soon, by the late period of the Boei War, the total number of bombs in the empire once exceeded 50 million tons. At that time, the ammunition stored in frontier bases alone exceeded 15 million tons.
To be continued...