Operation Desert Storm

Operation Desert Storm



Abstract

Desert Storm is the American military codeword used to refer to the First Gulf War, an American-led military conflict which lasted between 2 August 1990 and 28 February 1991. Many people use the term “Desert Storm” to refer collectively to this war, despite the fact that it involved a coalition of 35 countries, each of which used its own codewords to refer to the war. This conflict is also known simply as the Persian Gulf War or Gulf War, with the “First” being added in 2003 to differentiate between this conflict and the American-led Iraq War which began in 2003.Operation Desert Storm

Introduction

Operation Desert Storm was the designation for the 1991 American-led military operation meant to compel Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. It was also intended to destroy Saddam Hussein's capacity to wage aggressive war on his neighbors. The overwhelming success of Operation Desert Storm shocked the world, and many aspects of the operation continue to be studied to this day and define modern conventional military practices.

Thesis: The two primary factors that affected military readiness in the early stages of conflict were an unknown enemy and unknown enemy tactics. Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom provides clear examples of this. The NCO role was instrumental and played a key role in preparing Soldiers to deal with the factors that affected military readiness.

Operation Desert Storm

Operation Desert Storm and the Persian Gulf War are often confused. Strictly speaking, the Persian Gulf War began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and formally ended only after the conclusion of a peace agreement. Operation Desert Storm specifically refers to the military campaign to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

Time Frame Operation Desert Storm began on January 17, 1991 and lasted until President Bush declared a unilateral cease fire on February 27, 1991.

History

One day after the UN-mandated deadline for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait passed, Operation Desert Storm began with the opening of a month-long bombing campaign by the US-led international coalition. Initial air strikes were aimed at destroying Iraq's radar, air force anti-aircraft assets and communications infrastructure. In the first week of war, the Iraqi Air Force was thoroughly outclassed, as it made few efforts to intercept coalition aircraft, and lost 38 combat aircraft. To prevent its inevitable destruction, either in the air or on the ground, Saddam Hussein ordered the fighters he had left to fly to Iran. Why he ordered them to seek a safe haven with his bitter enemy Iran has never been explained but it was probably because the coalition was expecting them to flee to Iraq's more friendly neighbor, Jordan, and had positioned combat air patrols to block such a retreat. Over 100 aircraft made it to Iran, and they were never returned (Coates 2003).

The bombing campaign then moved on to SCUD missile launching sites, oil facilities, power plants, bridges, dams, railroads and weapons of mass destruction-related sites. While not quite bombed "back to the stone age," Iraq was reduced from being one ...