Military Face-off, Massive Armoury: US vs Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 21, 2003

Military Face-off, Massive Armoury: US vs Iraq

The United States and Britain deployed about 280,000 military personnel in the Gulf region in the run-up to the military campaign against Iraq. Following is a faceoff of the main military deployments of US allies and Iraq.

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The US-led forces

Navy: There are six aircraft carriers - five American and one British - within striking distance of Iraq, bringing to nearly 500 the number of US naval and Air Force warplanes near Iraq.

The US carriers Kitty Hawk, Abraham Lincoln and Constellation are in or near the Gulf and the Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman are in the Mediterranean.

A sixth US carrier, the Nimitz, left San Diego on March 3 headed for the Gulf, leading a battle group of six warships. The group carries about 8,500 personnel.

US personnel: Nearly 100,000 US army soldiers and marines are in Kuwait. About 10 ships with equipment for the Fourth Infantry Division, comprising about 30,000 soldiers, have been deployed in Turkey for a possible northern attack against Iraq.

Air forces: Several F-117A "stealth" attack jets which can avoid radar are now doing practice flights at Al-Udeid.

US B-52 bombers began arriving in Britain in recent days. Other B-52s along with B-1 bombers are already in the Gulf.

B-52 and B-1 long-range bombers and radar-avoiding B-2 stealth bombers are also stationed on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.

The US Air Force has sent F-15C fighters, F-15E attack jets, F-16 fighters, A-10 attack jets, Predator unmanned spy planes and radar aircraft.

The United States has bases in Turkey, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia.

British forces: Some 45,000 personnel, including Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force, have been committed. The Ministry of Defence said on March 13 the "majority" had reached the Gulf.

At sea, Britain has sent a 16-ship naval flotilla carrying 4,000 Royal Marines, plus a Fleet Submarine.

Britain's Royal Air Force component in the Gulf numbers 100 fixed-wing aircraft - including Hercules transport aircraft, Tornado and Harrier jets - supported by about 7,000 personnel.

Iraqi forces

Iraq remains a top regional military power despite its defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, but many of its assets are worn, ageing or obsolete.

Armed forces: Iraq's military has around 390,000 full-time active personnel with President Saddam Hussein as the supreme armed forces commander.

Regular army and republican guards: Iraq has six divisions of the elite Republican Guards, comprising three armoured, one mechanized and two infantry divisions. There are four elite Special Republican Guards brigades as part of a force designed to protect Saddam and the leadership.

Tanks: Iraq has 2,200-2,600 main battle tanks, of which 1,800-2,000 are combat-capable. Iraq has no modern tanks by US standards but does possess 700 relatively capable Soviet-built T-72 tanks and large numbers of T-62 tanks. Iraq lost many of its best tanks in the Gulf War.

Artillery: Iraq's 2,400 major artillery weapons include 200-250 self-propelled artillery pieces, mostly in the hands of the Republican Guards and a few elite regular army units. Most of Iraq's artillery is the towed variety. Iraqi artillery has not shown the ability to deal with a quickly moving adversary.

Air defence: Iraqi air defences have 17,000 men with more than 850 surface-to-air missile launchers and 3,000 anti-aircraft guns. The heavy surface-to-air missile forces of the Air Defence Council are organized into one of the most dense defensive networks in the world.

The Iraqi air force has 316 combat aircraft, of which only about 50 to 60 per cent are serviceable. These include Mirage F-1s and MiG-21s, MiG-23s, MiG-25s and MiG-29s. The air force has about 20,000 men.

Missiles: Iraq has been destroying al-Samoud missiles because UN weapons inspectors say that their range exceeds the 150-kilometre limit set as a maximum since the Gulf War. Before the scrapping, Iraq had about 120 al-Samoud missiles.

Navy: The Iraqi navy has only one obsolete Osa guided-missile patrol craft, five small inshore patrol craft and three Soviet inshore minesweepers. It has an unknown number of mines and Silkworm land-based anti-ship missiles.

Massive armoury of weapons on two sides

Following is a snapshot of some of the weapons that may be used, principally in the US arsenal:

Missiles

TOMAHAWK - This stubby-winged, precision-guided, long-range US cruise missile launched the 1991 Gulf War. It skims in at about 880 km per hour 30-90 metres above the ground. Length: 5.5 metres.

JASSM - Nicknamed "Jazz'em," the US Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile is an air-launched precision cruise missile that uses signals from satellites to find its way.

SMART BOMBS - US satellite-guided bombs, known as Joint Direct Attack Munitions, are for all-weather use. Laser-guided Paveway bombs, with onboard guidance systems that home in on targets illuminated by an external laser, can be hampered by heavy cloud and darkness.

Other bombs

CLUSTER BOMBS - Used by US forces in the 1991 Gulf War, Kosovo and Afghanistan, these contain around 200 "bomblets" that can penetrate armour or simply kill or wound anyone stepping on them.

THE DAISY CUTTER - A high-altitude delivery conventional bomb dating back to the Viet Nam War, the 6,750-kilogram Daisy Cutter produces a devastating blast and packs a huge psychological punch.

MOAB - The 9,450-kilogram Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), which can take out a whole unit and leaves a trademark mushroom cloud above the desert, is likely to pack an even greater psychological punch.

Airpower

B2 STEALTH BOMBER - Long-range, multi-role US bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear weapons.

F-117A - The Nighthawk fighter also uses stealth technology to avoid detection.

B52 - A veteran of the Vietnam War, this long-range US bomber played a key role during the 1991 Gulf War and also saw action in Kosovo.

F14 - The Tomcat is the pin-up of the US Navy and the backbone of its carrier-borne air strike force.

A10 THUNDERBOLT - Nicknamed "the tank buster" or "the warthog," this highly manoeuvrable US plane is designed to support ground forces both during the day and at night.

Tanks

M1-A2 ABRAMS - The US army's most advanced battle tank, it has top speeds of 60 km/h. The latest versions have been fitted with devices to protect them from "friendly fire."

CHALLENGER - The main British battle tank. The latest version can resist nuclear, chemical and biological attacks.

DEPLETED URANIUM - designed to pierce heavy armour, it is used to harden M-1A Abrams tank shells and 30 mm rounds fired from A10 attack jets.

Iraqi weapons

Iraq destroyed 72 of its 120 declared al-Samoud 2 missiles under UN inspections. A successor to the Scuds of the 1991 Gulf War, the al-Samoud could be fitted with a chemical or biological warhead.

Iraq says it does not possess such weapons of mass destruction. If it has them and opts to use them, chemical weapons could include VX and Sarin nerve agents.

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