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“IRAQI FREEDOM”: LESSONS FROM THE WAR
By Karl Schwarz
After a year to plan the war, it was all over in just 22 days. The American armed forces swept away Saddam Hussein's regime at double-quick pace. The political collateral damage brought about by Operation Iraqi Freedom is a cause for concern and successful democratic reconstruction of the country is clearly a long way off. Nevertheless, from a military point of view the United States has probably never before demonstrated so convincingly its position as the dominant superpower.
Even if this war was different from the last one and the next one in turn will take yet another shape, even if the ailing Iraqi military apparatus was in no way an equal contender and only scant information is available about the details of the campaign, some conclusions can be drawn that have implications for the further transformation of the US armed forces:
- Total air supremacy is the basis for the unhindered deployment of reconnaissance aircraft, UAVs and bombers. After ten years of surveillance flights over the northern and southern no-fly zones, the Americans and British had detailed information about the Iraqi air defences, so that knocking them out was easy.
- With satellites, both manned and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, bugging devices and, particularly, with Special Forces operating throughout the country, the allied military command centres had comprehensive information on the situation. At the same time structures were built up in recent years for effective filtering and rapid dissemination of this information. The result was a massive reduction in the time required to plan ground target strike missions, and in some cases this was accomplished in less than one hour.
- “Effects-based bombing” is the new buzzword used to describe the objective of achieving the maximum possible effect with the minimum possible destruction. Instead of bombing bridges to restrict the mobility of the enemy, for example, it is more efficient to prevent replenishment and disrupt communications. This can be done with smaller bombs – and it is no accident that a Small Diameter Bomb is currently under development. It goes without saying that a high percentage of bombs are today accurately guided to the target using laser target designation or GPS. Boeing (JDAM) and Raytheon (Paveway) can look forward to full utilisation of their production lines after the war.
- Tankers continue to be indispensable, and are in some cases even a limiting element of the fleet. However, they are among the oldest aircraft, so that at least partial replacement by the Boeing 767 may well be unavoidable before long.
- When all three Services are tightly co-ordinated through all-embracing communications systems, they are invincible. Rapid operations become possible, combined with flexible responses to unforeseen developments.
The trend is clearly towards smaller, more mobile forces. The Pentagon planners are already considering the implications of this for the stationing of American forces overseas. For example, Germany and Japan are no longer the conveniently positioned strategic centres that they were in the era of the Cold War. Further troop withdrawals are therefore likely.
And how will this affect Germany and Europe? Without modern equipment, especially with regard to communication systems, the armies of the Old World will soon no longer be in a position to wage war alongside the US forces. But the procurement of new systems presupposes the political will to increase defence expenditure. Whether that will be forthcoming remains doubtful.
From page 4 of FLUG REVUE 6/2003
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