The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

Baghdad's air defense force is definitely the strongest in the whole of Iraq.

The air defense firepower is intensively firing artillery shells, anti-aircraft machine gun bullets and anti-aircraft missiles into the air.

In the past, these air defense firepower made the Persians suffer a lot. Later, the Persians regarded Baghdad as an air restricted area and never airstrike Baghdad again. Saddam and others can sleep well in Baghdad.

But tonight, Baghdad's air defense capabilities suffered a huge test.

These air defense firepowers were all obtained by Saddam at a great cost.

The entire air defense network was also built by Saddam with a lot of effort.

The air defense firepower is very powerful and intercepted many missiles and aircraft.

But it still cannot intercept all missiles and aircraft.

I saw an F117 fighter jet attacking the target "Iraqi Defense Building".

The Iraqi Defense Building has a telephone network hub connected to the entire Iraq and is the most important command center of the Iraqi army.

Once the command system is destroyed, the command system of the entire Iraqi army will be paralyzed.

Without the command system, the orders of the Iraqi high-level officials will not be able to be transmitted to all Iraqi troops in the first time.

Similarly, the situations encountered by all the troops cannot be reported to the superiors in the first time.

When the distance was about the same, the pilot of the F117 fighter pressed the bomb button, and two 907kg laser-guided bombs flew out and flew towards the defense building.

The cockpit instruments kept sounding alarms, and the pilot pulled the joystick, and the plane quickly rose.

Baghdad's air defense firepower was too fierce. Up to now, half of the F117 fighters have been shot down, and now this F117 fighter has been locked.

"Boom!"

An anti-aircraft missile slammed into the fighter plane, and the whole fighter plane suddenly turned into a ball of sparks.

"Boom~Boom~~"

But soon, two machine-guided bombs exploded.

The flames produced by the violent explosion illuminated a large area around.

The light even instantly illuminated Baghdad.

"Boom~~Boom~~Boom~~"

The explosions continued to sound in Baghdad.

The violent explosion caused Baghdad to burn everywhere.

"Woo~~" The shrill air defense alarm sounded throughout Baghdad.

And fire trucks and others were putting out fires everywhere.

Tonight was a sleepless night for Baghdad, and also a great tragedy.

"Boom! Boom! Boom~~~"

The rapid and dull anti-aircraft machine guns kept firing into the dark sky, and the sound of shells being fired resounded throughout the night sky of Baghdad.

"Da Da Da~~~"

The anti-aircraft machine guns were also constantly sounding, and the bullets fired by the anti-aircraft machine guns left a trail of bullet marks in the night sky.

When the anti-aircraft firepower in various places in Baghdad was opened, it was instantly illuminated by various anti-aircraft firepower fired from the ground.

The highest hit rate was the 'Aegis' air defense missile system, followed by the SAM missile system, and then the Type 80 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.

The same strategic bombing also took place in Kuwait.

This night was destined to be a sleepless night.

Kuwait does not have such a strong anti-aircraft firepower, but at the same time, there are no civilians in Kuwait now.

Rashid has already deployed the troops.

At night, anti-aircraft firepower continued to pour down, intercepting missiles and aircraft.

There were also Iraqi planes, driven by pilots, engaging in air battles with coalition aircraft in the air.

All over Iraq, all over Kuwait, there were battles everywhere.

The battle did not take place on the ground, but in the air.

This is a tactic that has never appeared before.

In the past, air strikes were carried out in conjunction with ground forces, and there has never been a separate air strike tactic.

This is also a tactic that emerged with the development of missiles.

Either defend against missiles and aircraft, or be bombed.

Abnormal cruelty.

The coalition forces did not know how many missiles they launched, nor how many aircraft took off.

I don’t know how many war correspondents spread the cruel side of this time to all parts of the world, allowing everyone to feel the cruelty of war.

Air Force Command.

When only three F117 fighters returned, after receiving the news, the Air Force Commander was like being struck by lightning.

Heavy losses!

As the killer, the most relied upon, and used to shoot out the eyes and ears of the Iraqi army, the stealth attack aircraft, which was highly expected, suffered heavy losses when performing the mission early this morning.

46 F117 fighters, only 3 F117 fighters returned.

How can we fight like this?

"Who can tell me what happened?" The Air Force Commander felt like he was going crazy.

The loss of 43 F117 fighters means that the loss of these fighters alone exceeded 4 billion US dollars in one night.

The Iraqis' air defense capabilities are so strong?

To be honest, the Air Force Commander had previously believed that even the Soviet Union's air defense firepower would be difficult to deal with the F117 fighters.

Even if the F117 fighters went to Moscow, there would not be such a big loss.

And now there is such a big loss just by air strikes on Baghdad.

"Let the intelligence department find out what happened!" The Air Force Commander roared.

Such a big loss, even he felt the pain.

The United States only has 59 F117 fighters in total. In order to win the Gulf War, 46 F117 fighters were specially mobilized to the Middle East, but now 43 F117 fighters have been lost.

If he doesn't check it out, he might be dismissed, or even sent back to the United States and tried in a military court.

At the same time, Schwarzkopf, the commander-in-chief, also got the news.

In his heart, Schwarzkopf scolded William Webster, the director of the CIA, because the CIA should have made it clear before the war.

As a result, Iraq's air defense firepower is much stronger than the intelligence.

This is the CIA's dereliction of duty.

However, despite this, Schwarzkopf did not intend to modify the combat plan.

Because if these important targets are not destroyed and Iraq loses its support capabilities and a large amount of combat power through air strikes, then the ground forces participating in the war will inevitably suffer heavy losses.

After all, Iraq has a strong army, with thousands of tanks and armored vehicles. It is the third most powerful military country in the world. Moreover, the Iraqi army has experienced the baptism of the Iran-Iraq War and its combat effectiveness is still very strong.

If they don't fight like this and attack directly with ground forces, then the 15,000 body bags and 18,000 beds prepared by the US military are probably not enough.

The bottom line given to him by the superiors is that at most 1.5 US soldiers will die in battle and no more than 25,000 will be injured.

If this bottom line is exceeded, he will definitely not have a good harvest after the war.

This is why the operation plan at the beginning of this operation is to carry out strategic bombing, rather than air strikes to cooperate with ground forces to launch an attack.

It is to minimize the casualties of the US military.

Therefore, unless it is necessary, Schwarzkopf will not easily change the "Desert Storm" operation plan.

The losses last night were indeed huge, but not enough to change Schwarzkopf's mind.

As long as the follow-up goes smoothly, Schwarzkopf can accept these losses.

And ultimately, this is the fault of the intelligence department. If we are to hold someone accountable, it shouldn't be just them, the intelligence department should also be held accountable.