- 7/11/2025
For educational purposes
The final days of Desert Storm, including the ground war and the liberation of Kuwait : General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.
The final days of Desert Storm, including the ground war and the liberation of Kuwait : General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.
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00:00You
00:30February 26th, 1991. After a six-week air campaign, the ground war against Iraq begins.
00:39F-16 fighting Falcons were the workhorses of the Gulf War. More F-16s flew into combat than any other type of aircraft.
01:09In the early 1970s, the United States Air Force faced a unique dilemma. It was preparing to bring into service the best fighter of all time, the F-15 Eagle.
01:34But F-15s cost so much that they could only be deployed in small numbers.
01:39The West needed an inexpensive fighter to replace the F-4 Phantom, since the Soviet Union was filling the skies with low-cost, high-speed aircraft.
01:49The Soviets believed that even if the West had better planes, NATO could be overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers.
01:55So in 1972, the U.S. Air Force called for proposals for a lightweight aircraft that could serve as both a dogfighter and a ground attacker.
02:06The winner was a single-engine, single-pilot General Dynamics design, the F-16.
02:13GD took proven systems from other planes and married them to a highly aerodynamic fuselage.
02:19The price was kept to a relatively low $12 million per plane, thanks to a unique production agreement between GD and four NATO countries.
02:27The F-16 parts would be mass-produced in America and Europe, and the monetary risk would be spread among the partners.
02:34In 1979, the F-16 went into service with the United States Air Force.
02:46By the 1990s, 17 other countries were flying it for air defense.
02:50The popularity of the F-16 is easy to explain.
02:56It's small, very fast, and highly maneuverable.
02:59Great characteristics for a dogfighter.
03:02In the hands of the right pilot, it can hold its own against anything flying today.
03:07And the F-16 has multi-mission capability.
03:11In other words, it can also drop bombs.
03:13If you look up and try to see an F-16 from 12,000, 13,000 feet coming down the chute in a 45-degree dive or so,
03:23and you look up at that airplane, you will not see it.
03:26You will not see it.
03:27At 8,000 feet, you might see it.
03:29And by the time you hear the sound, the bomb is going off in your face.
03:34Aviators like the way the F-16 responds in the air, and they also like its unique cockpit.
03:39The airplane's seat is set back at a 30-degree angle.
03:42This helps pilots cope with the plane's 9G turn capability.
03:47The plane's bubble canopy gives pilots unobstructed vision.
03:52But the most striking feature of the F-16 is its fly-by-wire control system.
03:58The F-16 was the first fully electric fighter.
04:01All control commands are relayed by wires, not by cables or linkage controls.
04:07Pilot and machine become a seamless unit bonded by the plane's onboard computer.
04:12The F-16's APG-68 radar gives pilots a clear picture of air and ground threats.
04:26When the Falcon is in dogfighting mode, it can fire its two wingtip-mounted AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles,
04:32as well as Sparrow and AMRAAM missiles.
04:43In August 1990, F-16 squadrons began shipping out to the Persian Gulf.
04:48Squadrons were drawn from the active air force, as well as the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve.
04:53The 249 F-16 sent-over flew out of at least four bases scattered across Saudi Arabia.
04:59I've got a little bit over 10 years' experience in the military now, flying lots of different types of airplanes.
05:07And when I went to the Persian Gulf, our wing did not take any, quote, inexperienced guys.
05:14We tended to take guys that had maybe more than 300 hours or so in the airplane, in F-16s, just so that it's stacking your team.
05:25If you have a group of pilots to draw from, you want to try to take the best team you can put together.
05:30In the Gulf War, America's team included men and women.
05:40For Air Force personnel, female crew chiefs and tanker pilots were nothing new.
05:45But for some members of the coalition, particularly the Saudis,
05:48the sight of women working alongside men on the flight line was alarming.
05:52The Saudis were even more unnerved when they saw female officers giving orders to men.
06:04They reported both, but it's got to Foxtrot.
06:06Foxtrot time now, for now.
06:08Choctaw, Choctaw, relay.
06:11But the sexual integration of the U.S. military was just one of the major changes that followed the Vietnam War.
06:18There's no doubt about it, the Vietnam experience affected all of us deeply and provided us great insights.
06:26It started out at the national level, the president, secretary of defense, who were involved in detail in everything we did.
06:32And yet, they would leave to the military those decisions that were the military's, picking of targets, for example.
06:39I think the fact that we fought the war unrelentingly is also an example.
06:43If we're in Vietnam, we'd use bombing halts and attempt to negotiate and do those kinds of things that would delay the conflict and prolong the suffering.
06:53I think all of us were death against that.
06:57Turn right, 81-80, intercept 1-6-0-8.
07:022-3-7-0-8.
07:04Okay, F-16 on top.
07:16Roger that.
07:17Callie-go.
07:18Go.
07:201-9-0.
07:23My first day in combat, shoot, yeah, I was nervous.
07:27And I'm sure I concentrated a lot more than I normally do.
07:32My head was on a swivel the whole time, looking around to see what was going on, make sure nobody was going to shoot me.
07:39But I remember coming back off the target once I got over the adrenaline rush, going,
07:44that wasn't so bad.
07:46I think I can do that again.
07:47During January and February 1991, American F-16s bombed Iraqi military facilities,
08:15tanks, airfields, chemical factories, and supply lines.
08:19They also attacked Iraqi troops in and around occupied Kuwait.
08:23F-16s do not carry any laser-guided smart bombs into battle.
08:28The airplane isn't fitted with the laser-targeting devices needed to drop such weapons.
08:35Because their primary targets were military positions in the desert,
08:39F-16s usually dropped cluster bomb units and 2,000-pound gravity bombs.
08:43Weapons with no built-in guidance systems.
08:48Many were leftovers from the Vietnam War.
08:55F-16s dropped these bombs as part of the coalition's strategy of overwhelming force.
09:01The plan was to hit Iraq, particularly its ground troops, as hard as possible
09:05for as long as it took to break their will and force a surrender.
09:09When bombing, F-16 pilots activate the continuously computing impact point
09:17ordnance aiming system, a device that takes much of the inaccuracy out of dumb-bomb delivery.
09:23A computer calculates airspeed, bomb weight, distance to target, and other factors,
09:28so when bombs are dropped, they have a high PK, or probability of kill.
09:32However, the higher a plane flies, the worse the PK.
09:39Our bomb is designed around a very, very smart computer in the airplane
09:43to, once you pickle that bomb off, it's a hunk of iron falling to the ground.
09:50And although it's still a very accurate system,
09:52you're talking about, you know, 50 feet is a very average bomb from 10,000 to 15,000 feet.
10:00But 50 feet sometimes is the difference between a miss and a hit.
10:05So our PK was certainly not as good as the very, very smart bombers.
10:10General Horner and I were obsessed, and that's probably the right word,
10:15with having the minimum loss of life.
10:18And so there were restrictions that were placed on all of the airplanes
10:23as far as minimum altitudes they could fly during the day.
10:26And the F-16 was one of the airplanes that had to put up with our restrictions.
10:33And so we did not expect them to be as accurate as just a plain physics.
10:38But if you honestly do not believe that the outcome of a war is in question,
10:44and the only question is how many lives you're going to lose,
10:48then that's a prudent action.
10:50F-16s and many other coalition planes were restricted to medium altitudes
10:56because of Iraq's Vietnam-style tactic of spraying the sky with bullets
11:01and surface-to-air missiles.
11:03If you've talked about it statistically,
11:05I'm sure if you compared the numbers of SAMs
11:08that were situated in the Baghdad, Kuwait city area,
11:11it'd probably be very comparable to what the Vietnamese,
11:14what the pilots he flew in North Vietnam faced in the Norway area.
11:18It's really, really heavy concentration.
11:21We just were a lot better equipped to deal with them
11:24in this day and age due to the technology that we had.
11:28By the end of the Gulf War,
11:30two F-16s had been lost to surface-to-air missiles,
11:33and two others were downed by anti-aircraft guns.
11:37F-16 performance was also diminished by poor weather
11:40and later by the oil well fires that fouled the skies.
11:43The F-16 is at its best on clear, sunny days.
11:48One, two, zero, and ten.
11:51Standby, unable to give you a radar.
11:54There's a 10,000-foot layer,
11:56kind of a scud layer where the sand would come up off the desert.
12:00The sand there is more like a talcum powder
12:03than the sand we know in our sandboxes,
12:05so any kind of wind picked up, it'd come up in the atmosphere.
12:08So there's always about 10,000 feet,
12:11some type of restriction there and below.
12:14You could see down, you couldn't see out a good bit
12:17except after a front came through.
12:20But not all the F-16s were blind.
12:2372 flew with lantern navigation pods
12:26containing terrain-following radar
12:28and a forward-looking infrared sensor.
12:30Perhaps the major test of the F-16s' power and versatility
12:37came on February 24, 1991,
12:41when, after six weeks of air assault,
12:43the ground war began.
12:45During the last part of the war,
12:47just before and when the Army came in,
12:50the sense of urgency of the target sets became more real
12:54because now they're going to be risking their lives.
12:56Before, it was just us in the airplanes
12:59and we fought our own little war.
13:01But when you added the Army in,
13:02now we knew somebody else was involved
13:04that we had to help,
13:06which now the urgency of whether getting to your target,
13:10taking out exactly the target
13:11that they want you to take out,
13:13became a real player.
13:14I'm ready.
13:16I'm ready.
13:17Come on.
13:21Ready!
13:23Ready!
13:23Ready!
13:26Good!
13:29Murder!
13:42Okay.
13:43How do you go? Good job.
13:45I'll get you to the moment.
13:46I'm going to take you guys out first, though.
13:48Okay.
13:49To support the ground troops,
13:54F-16s began flying forward air control missions
13:57in enemy areas designated as kill boxes.
14:01Kill boxes originated when coalition air planners
14:04took a Saudi Air Force map of the Gulf region
14:06based on a grid of 60-mile squares,
14:09then subdivided those squares into 15-mile boxes.
14:13Strike planes were then sent to each box
14:15to find and destroy targets.
14:16When the ground war started,
14:19F-16s were sent on killer scout missions
14:21to kill boxes close to front-line troops.
14:24The killer scout mission,
14:25where they would actually spot targets
14:27and identify them and things,
14:29were very helpful
14:31in systematically
14:33attreting that ground army.
14:35because if you take two or four fighter pilots
14:40and say, okay,
14:41that's 15-mile square,
14:42you keep coming back every day
14:44until basically there's no ground threat there.
14:48It's after a couple days.
14:50They are very familiar with
14:52every little sand dune
14:55in that 15-mile square.
14:57F-16s flying killer scout missions
15:01were frequent visitors to airborne tankers.
15:05Loitering over kill boxes
15:06for long periods of time
15:07consumes a great deal of fuel.
15:10Duck!
15:11The ultimate purpose of kill box attacks
15:13was to overwhelm Iraqi forces
15:15with a shower of munitions
15:16falling from the sky-like rain.
15:19It was hoped that a frightening display
15:20of air power
15:21would break the will of the Iraqi army.
15:24Throughout the Gulf War,
15:33F-16s attacked soldiers of the Iraqi army
15:36and the elite Republican Guard.
15:39Studies have shown
15:40that when a military unit,
15:41no matter how capable or motivated,
15:44drops beneath the 50% combat strength level,
15:47it becomes all but useless.
15:49The coalition hoped
15:50that constant air attacks
15:51would cause so many desertions,
15:53surrenders, wounds, and deaths
15:55in the Iraqi ranks
15:56that its entire front-line force
15:58would fall below the 50% mark.
16:07Their goal, however,
16:09was not to kill every Iraqi soldier
16:11on the battlefield.
16:12We could kill a lot of people
16:15if we wanted to
16:16using, for example,
16:17cluster bomb units
16:18over large areas.
16:19When, in fact,
16:20we went with, for example,
16:21laser-guided bombs
16:22against tanks.
16:23And the enemy knew this,
16:25and immediately,
16:25as soon as they parked their tank,
16:27they'd get away,
16:27and you'd see the slip trenches
16:28appear around the tanks.
16:31So every target we looked at,
16:32we looked at in terms of
16:34how to limit the loss of life
16:35and how to destroy
16:37those systems
16:38that would cause
16:38loss of life
16:39on the friendly side.
16:42Right there, next to them.
16:44Go, take it, take it.
16:47He's gone.
16:48Good shot.
16:51Tanks were key targets
16:53for F-16s,
16:54Apache gunships,
16:55and A-10s.
16:57Iraq had the fourth largest
16:58army in the world,
16:59and tank warfare
17:00was one of that army's strengths.
17:02F-16s often dropped
17:08cluster bomb units
17:09such as these
17:09on or near Iraqi armor.
17:12They were somewhat effective,
17:13though nowhere near as lethal
17:15to Iraq's top-of-the-line tanks
17:16as Maverick missiles.
17:19When the ground war began
17:20and tank killing
17:21became priority one,
17:23Maverick was the F-16 pilot's
17:25weapon of choice.
17:32Since it only took one missile
17:37to destroy an Iraqi tank,
17:40a $70,000 Maverick
17:41equaled a $1.5 million
17:43T-72 tank.
17:49But air-to-ground attacks
17:50are not always as straightforward
17:52as bombing a lone tank
17:54in the desert.
17:56February 26th.
17:59JointSTAR's surveillance aircraft
18:00spot a massive convoy
18:02of Iraqi troops
18:03retreating from Kuwait City
18:04along the highway to Basra.
18:07F-15Es, F-111s, A-10s,
18:09and F-16s are sent in
18:11to shell the hundreds of tanks,
18:13trucks, and cars
18:14escaping Kuwait.
18:16The extent of the destruction
18:17caused by hours
18:18of steady air-to-ground attacks
18:20is frightening.
18:24Weeks of watching
18:25laser-guided bomb strikes
18:27on bridges and bunkers
18:28had conditioned the public
18:29to view the Gulf War
18:30as an elaborate computer game
18:32in which far-away targets
18:33were obliterated
18:34with almost magical precision.
18:37The attack on the road
18:38to Basra
18:39brought the reality of war
18:41and the deadly potential
18:42of airplanes
18:43back into perspective.
18:46There was nothing clean
18:47about this attack,
18:48and the fact that
18:49coalition airplanes
18:50had launched a full-force
18:51assault on a retreating army
18:53raised troubling moral questions
18:55back in the United States.
18:57Should the coalition
18:58have allowed the Iraqi army
19:00to retreat unmolested?
19:02Was air power misused?
19:05I was amazed at a question
19:08one newsman asked
19:09about when we attacked
19:11the retreating forces.
19:12They said,
19:13wasn't that extreme violence?
19:15I believe that was the term used.
19:16I think that misses the point.
19:19War is extreme violence.
19:22And the way
19:22to halt the suffering
19:24is to get the war over
19:25as quickly
19:26and decisively
19:28as you possibly can.
19:29If you're going to enter
19:31into this adventure
19:32where you take human life
19:34and lose human life,
19:35you have a moral obligation
19:37to get it over
19:38as quickly as possible.
19:40And that is why
19:41the way we fought this war
19:43with such great intensity
19:44and unyielding pressure
19:46on the enemy
19:46until it was finally over with
19:48and we'd accomplished our goals.
20:01The overall performance
20:03of the F-16
20:03in the Persian Gulf
20:05is a bad question to ask me
20:09because I'm going to tell you
20:10it was great
20:11because I thought it was.
20:12It was a marvelous airplane.
20:14Very capable.
20:16I felt very comfortable
20:17and very safe flying it.
20:19Mechanically,
20:20it holds up.
20:21I mean,
20:21if you look at
20:22the sortie generation
20:23and the Persian Gulf War
20:25and compare it
20:26to the sortie generation
20:28and the Vietnam War,
20:30we've come a long way
20:33because you can take
20:34the F-16
20:35and fly that airplane
20:37three times
20:38in four hours
20:39because we did it.
20:42But the dedication
20:43of the pilots,
20:44none of us,
20:45I never went down
20:46the chute going,
20:47I'm just going to
20:47pick all these things off
20:48so I can get out of here.
20:50I went down
20:50every time going,
20:52you know,
20:52I owe Uncle Sam
20:53this five seconds
20:54right down the chute.
20:55I owe it to him.
20:55That's my job.
20:56That's what he pays me to do.
20:57So I will do the best
20:59that I possibly can for him.
21:00Come on,
21:01do it and stop.
21:02How'd it go, buddy?
21:03Come on, boy.
21:04Come on, buddy.
21:05Come on.
21:06Come on, buddy.
21:07Good job, buddy.
21:07Good job, buddy.
21:09Good job, man.
21:10All right.
21:11Yeah.
21:15It was ugly, huh?
21:17All right.
21:17All right.
21:29This is the A-10 Thunderbolt II,
21:33better known
21:34as the Warthog.
21:35In an age of stealth fighters
21:37and smart bombs,
21:39the A-10 is a primitive airplane.
21:41It is neither fast,
21:42nor elegant,
21:44nor state-of-the-art.
21:48Okay, I'm in from the southwest.
21:51Office check, 3.8.
21:54I'm setting up the bombs.
21:58Copy.
21:59You're going to get one pass at it.
22:00Copy that.
22:01A-10s were the most vulnerable
22:03combat planes in the Gulf,
22:04but they were deadly efficient
22:06at their mission,
22:07destroying enemy tanks.
22:12Very, very nice shot.
22:13Although it looks like an old design,
22:36the A-10 is one of the youngest planes
22:38in the Air Force inventory.
22:39It was developed by Fairchild Industries
22:41in the 1970s
22:43to defend the NATO nations
22:44against a Soviet ground attack.
22:47The A-10 is built around a gun,
22:49the 21-foot Gao VIII Avenger cannon,
22:52which spits out 4,200 shells per minute.
22:55A-10s can linger over target areas for hours,
22:58swooping in low to attack with cannon blazing.
23:01Flying low exposes the Warthog to ground fire,
23:07but the plane is protected
23:08by its rugged titanium shell
23:10and redundant systems.
23:12All the aircraft's major systems have backups.
23:15The plane was built to take severe punishment
23:18and get its pilots home.
23:23A-10s have been in service since 1977,
23:26but they have never been favorites
23:28of the Air Force leadership
23:29who generally prefer high-tech,
23:31high-flying aircraft,
23:32such as the F-16.
23:35The A-10 is anything but high-tech.
23:37In fact, the plane looks and flies
23:39more like a World War II-era fighter.
23:41Warthogs are flown by stick-and-rutter controls,
23:50not by onboard computers.
23:52Though they carry some advanced systems,
23:55A-10 cockpits are still dominated
23:57by old-fashioned dials and gauges.
24:00This lack of sophistication can be an advantage.
24:03A-10s are far less expensive than F-16s,
24:06and they take punishment
24:07their supersonic cousins
24:09would have difficulty surviving.
24:11But as the 1980s ended,
24:14the A-10s seemed destined for the scrap heap.
24:17The collapse of the Eastern Bloc
24:19made the possibility
24:20of fighting a ground war in Europe remote.
24:23A-10s were scattered
24:24among a few Air Force units,
24:26the Air Force Reserve
24:26and the Air National Guard.
24:31Flying the A-10 for over 10 years now,
24:33we had practiced with
24:33the Eastern Europe scenario
24:35flying against Eastern Bloc countries.
24:37low-altitude type of scenarios,
24:41working close with the Army,
24:43doing the type of things,
24:45air-to-ground, close-air support.
24:46However, in the Persian Gulf,
24:47it was all totally different.
24:48In a low-medium-intensity conflict,
24:50we jacked up our altitude
24:51to stay away from the AAA.
24:53We were mostly worried about the ground threat.
24:55The Gulf War thrust the warthog
24:59into frontline combat.
25:01But it was rumored that the Air Force
25:02hadn't wanted to send the A-10s over at all
25:04because they feared the slow-flying planes
25:06would be easy prey
25:07for Iraqi anti-aircraft guns.
25:09I heard stories about
25:12how we held the A-10 from deploying.
25:14That's absolutely untrue.
25:16They came at their appointed time
25:17and went to their appointed place
25:18and served superbly.
25:21We used the A-10 in the F-16s,
25:24AV-8s, and F-18s
25:25to provide sort of a fundamental attack system
25:28against the Kuwaiti theater of operations.
25:31In addition, the A-10s were invaluable
25:33in doing things like search and rescue
25:34and scud hunts out in the western area
25:36during daylight hours.
25:37On January 17th, 1991,
25:41A-10s were among the 668 coalition aircraft
25:44that took to the air
25:46for the first massive assault of the Gulf War.
25:49Missions were long
25:50and pilots were taxed
25:51to their mental and physical limits.
25:55I flew three missions on the first day,
25:57a total of about eight hours of flying time
26:00and about 12 hours in the cockpit.
26:02When you came back from a mission,
26:04you didn't even get out.
26:05Your hot pit refueled,
26:07as you sat there with engines running,
26:08going over with the intel people
26:10and what you did, where you went,
26:11and how it all worked out.
26:13They gave you current intel,
26:14and then you moved over to another slot
26:16where they put the bombs and guns on board.
26:20Basically, as 12 hours in the cockpit,
26:22doesn't really...
26:23We train for it,
26:24but you're really not...
26:25It's never comfortable in a single-seat cockpit
26:28with an injection seat.
26:29However, we've done it before,
26:31and you can do it over and over.
26:33By the end of the day,
26:34they actually have to help you out of the cockpit.
26:35A-10s were in constant danger of attack
26:40from Iraqi surface-to-air missiles.
26:43To stop the SAMs,
26:44F-4G wild weasels
26:46were sent in with radar-seeking missiles.
26:52With their radar neutralized,
26:54Iraqi soldiers fired blindly at aircraft noise.
26:57But the A-10 is relatively quiet.
26:59So quiet, the Iraqis called it the silent gun.
27:02Nine times out of ten,
27:04as you're rolling in on a target,
27:06you're concentrating so much on the bombing run
27:07that you really can't think about the AAA.
27:10If you do, you're going to have a lousy pass.
27:12You're usually hearing it from your wingmen
27:14saying they're shooting you up pretty good.
27:15AAA, you better start moving.
27:17You pull off into the cloud.
27:18Hopefully, they're only going
27:20with a visual type of shot at you.
27:22But, yeah, we've seen it all.
27:24And they said that you only see
27:25probably about 30% to 40% of the AAA fired at you.
27:28So that's just with the tracers
27:30and the rounds that are blowing up around you.
27:31The rest of the stuff, you'd never see.
27:34He's got a good Maverick lock.
27:37Okay, are you sure there's something there?
27:39Okay, Bob.
27:40Okay, fire. I'm off us.
27:41He's not moving.
27:58He's going to live.
28:01What are you?
28:06You look dead.
28:09What are you?
28:09You look like something.
28:13Okay.
28:13You don't think that there's three guys in that tank
28:18that you just put a Maverick.
28:19You think, well, you know, that was just a tank.
28:22And I think you depersonalize it yourself.
28:24If you didn't, it's sort of like knowing
28:27that people are out there shooting at you.
28:29If you think about it, tube and tense,
28:32and sit there at night between the scud attacks,
28:34then, yeah, it's going to drive you crazy.
28:36A lot of guys go to church a lot all of a sudden,
28:39and then they see to things different ways.
28:45You do a lot of sitting, watching the sunsets.
28:48As you're coming back over the border,
28:49you have another hour of flight just to get back to the home base.
28:52So you watch the sunset, and you think about things,
28:54and it's your time to move off to the side
28:57and forget about what you're doing for a little while.
28:59And, yeah, it takes a lot of, I guess, discipline
29:01to think about what you're doing,
29:03the reasons you're doing it,
29:04and I'm sure everybody had to go through that in their mind.
29:07And, you know, everybody came out with it fairly well.
29:11The A-10 was the least sophisticated strike airplane in the Gulf,
29:15but it was also one of the deadliest.
29:17The 144 A-10s sent to Southwest Asia
29:21flew almost 8,100 missions.
29:24They destroyed more than 1,000 enemy tanks
29:26and thousands of other vehicles and artillery pieces.
29:30A-10s can carry up to 16,000 pounds of ordnance
29:33on 11 external stations,
29:35including cluster bombs and Maverick missiles for ground attack,
29:39and AIM-9 sidewander missiles for air-to-air combat.
29:43But more often than not,
29:44pilots used their Avenger cannons against tanks
29:47and, in a first, against an Iraqi helicopter.
29:53I rolled in on the helicopter,
29:55so, oh, from about 12,000 feet.
29:58Nobody had fired an air-to-air missile off an A-10.
30:01It was the first time, of course,
30:02we were carrying them in war, the A-9s.
30:04So I tried to lock on with the A-9s,
30:07and they just wouldn't do it
30:08because of the hot background in the helicopter
30:11looking down from that altitude.
30:12I tried two lock-ons,
30:14and, fortunately, I remember to arm up the gun.
30:17Once I couldn't get a lock,
30:18I decided to put a few bullets through him,
30:20so maybe 75 bullets.
30:22I told my wingman if he had a shot to take a shot.
30:24He tried, but his slant range was too far off,
30:26so he missed,
30:27and then I just pirouetted over
30:28and put about 300 rounds into it,
30:31and there wasn't much left after that.
30:36Maverick was the A-10's other primary tank-killing weapon.
30:39These 500-pound guided missiles reach supersonic speed
30:43when they hit their targets,
30:44and not even the best armor can survive a direct hit.
30:49There are two types of Mavericks.
30:51Television-guided missiles are used in daylight.
30:54The missile sees contrasts between objects and backgrounds.
30:58Maverick is a fire-and-forget weapon,
31:00so when a pilot fires his missile,
31:01the video image cuts off.
31:04Infrared Mavericks,
31:05which were used in great numbers in the Gulf,
31:08detect targets based on differences in temperature.
31:11Since metal cools at a slower speed than sand,
31:14it was easy for pilots to spot tanks in the desert.
31:18Okay, I've got what appears to be a building
31:19and some distinct hot spots around it.
31:23Roger, that's your target.
31:24Mavericks were sometimes used by A-10s
31:47equipped with pavepenny pods.
31:50Pavepenny detects the laser beams
31:51used to mark targets by laser designation planes.
31:54A-10 pilots have earned their reputation
32:00as down-and-dirty fighters
32:01by making the most of the limited materials on hand.
32:05For instance, the pilots of the 355th Tactical Fighter Squadron,
32:09the only dedicated night-flying A-10 unit in the Gulf,
32:12sighted targets by using the video system
32:15from their infrared Mavericks
32:16as a sort of poor man's forward-looking infrared scanner.
32:19The night-fighters also employed the primitive but effective tactic
32:30of dropping flares such as these over their targets.
32:34A-10 pilots sometimes wore night-vision goggles
32:37and sighted targets through regular binoculars.
32:39ground troops or other pilots called in airstrikes.
32:49Then A-10s flew in, dropped their blinding flares,
32:52then strafed and bombed targets at will.
32:54The Iraqis did their best to hide their armor,
32:59to little avail.
33:01Here, a night-flying A-10 has spotted an Iraqi tank
33:04hidden under netting designed to hide its infrared hotspot.
33:08The shape of the tank is obscured,
33:09but the tank tracks around the netting are easy to see.
33:12By the end of the war,
33:16Iraq had lost over 90% of its tanks,
33:1990% of its artillery,
33:21and 50% of its other armored vehicles
33:23in the Kuwait theater of operations.
33:26The Iraqi soldiers who survived the non-stop air assault
33:30were those who learned to put as much distance
33:32between themselves and their weapons as possible.
33:36Okay, we got people running.
33:37Gosh, personally, I don't know.
33:42I stopped counting.
33:43I stopped counting the number of missiles I fired.
33:45I stopped counting the bombs I dropped.
33:47It's just, as I said,
33:48I guess someday in my mind it will come to me,
33:50but I sort of push that off to the corner of my mind.
33:53It's, you just go from day to day,
33:55and you write your letters home,
33:57and then you go to sleep,
33:58and you get up for your next mission.
33:59But if I, I can't even begin to tell you how many tanks.
34:03I just didn't keep count.
34:04The problem we faced with the A-10
34:08was the fact that because of its slower airspeeds,
34:11it was more susceptible to enemy ground fire.
34:14With about 10% of our forces,
34:16we suffered over half our casualties on the Air Force,
34:19the United States Air Force side, through the A-10.
34:21I think the Marine Corps had a similar problem with the AV-8
34:24because the way the engines are located
34:26along the center line of the aircraft,
34:27the heat-seeking missiles would strike
34:29the middle of the airplane rather than the tail.
34:32So you have to look at each aircraft's design,
34:34and weigh its strengths and weaknesses
34:36to know where to use it in the battle.
34:39The A-10s were superb.
34:40However, they were more vulnerable to the enemy defenses.
34:44That vulnerability was offset by the A-10s' amazing resilience.
34:49Pilots flying into anti-aircraft fire
34:51were particularly thankful for the titanium bathtub,
34:55the super-hard cockpit shell that shields them from flak.
34:57Boy, that humber was trying hard to blow you out of the air.
35:03Look at that.
35:04Tell me the hog can't take some hits, huh?
35:07I'm telling you.
35:09I isolated both hydraulic systems.
35:12As soon as I was hit, the right system went to zero,
35:14and all the lights in the world came off.
35:16Missile went off,
35:17and I thought it was the SAM going by,
35:19so I started kicking flares after that.
35:27Good show.
35:29Wish I'd have kept it on the runway for you.
35:31Well, now it blew, and I just couldn't keep it on.
35:33You know, when you see a missile come at you,
35:35and you're in a four-ship,
35:36you wonder who it's locked onto,
35:37and, yeah, I guess you see a lot going on,
35:41and you react,
35:42and AAA going off near you, it's scary,
35:44and then it's tough sometimes.
35:46Sometimes they'll have to take you off of the schedule
35:47and say, well, why don't you go do this on the ground
35:49for a while, give you a day off,
35:52just prop your feet up and relax,
35:53but there's not much they can do.
35:56We're glad it was a short war.
35:59You know, I don't know how else to keep you
36:01from getting burned out
36:02other than give you the day off or two.
36:04We did have guys that, you know, just said,
36:06well, you hold your hand up,
36:08just like in the old football games,
36:09I need out, coach,
36:10and pretty much we let it go with that.
36:17During the Gulf War,
36:24A-10s attacked a wide range of targets,
36:26including tanks, artillery, and bunkers.
36:31Okay, passing 10,
36:32I got something resetted.
36:35Ah, looks like a target,
36:36I'm going to hose it.
36:37A-10s worked near,
36:45but generally not directly alongside
36:46advancing army units.
36:51Low-level search and destroy missions
36:53were handled primarily
36:54by the army's fearsome Apache gunships.
36:57The massive assault
37:07kept the rocky ground forces
37:09from maneuvering.
37:10If they tried,
37:11they were pounded by tanks,
37:13artillery, and air power.
37:14Roger, we got a whole bunch of guys
37:16throwing AK-47s up near that here,
37:18that means anything.
37:20Don't shoot them,
37:21shoot their equipment.
37:23Okay, roger that.
37:24They're just, uh,
37:25we're going to back away from them
37:26a little bit.
37:27Our gun is out of ammo at this time.
37:29They seem to be no print at all.
37:31Okay, 065, 1,800 meters.
37:34These are what I've been driving
37:35looking much for.
37:36This is, uh...
37:37The air attacks cut enemy soldiers
37:38off from food and water.
37:40Constant bombing left thousands in shock.
37:44Soon, the coalition army
37:45found itself overwhelmed
37:46by surrendering troops.
37:48By the end of the war,
37:49more than 86,000 Iraqis
37:51were in custody.
37:52When I talked to you all before,
37:57and you asked me
37:58what we were going to do,
37:59if we had to go to war,
38:00and I told you
38:01we were going to kick ass,
38:02and that's exactly what we did.
38:11General H. Norman Schwarzkopf,
38:13commander of coalition forces,
38:14expected the ground phase
38:16of the war would last three weeks.
38:17In fact, it took just 100 hours
38:20to recapture Kuwait
38:21and neutralize the Iraqi army.
38:23But ground forces moved so quickly,
38:25and the speed of combat was so fast,
38:28that coalition attackers
38:29mistook some of their own invading army
38:31for retreating Iraqi soldiers.
38:34At least 11 Americans were killed
38:36and 15 wounded
38:37from air-to-ground friendly fire.
38:40We had some friendly fire issues,
38:42and they were disturbing.
38:44There's no doubt about it.
38:44We had an A-10 hit a Marine vehicle.
38:47I believe we had Marines
38:48rolled in on a Marine column.
38:50We had an A-10 hit two British vehicles,
38:52or two A-10s.
38:53And we had a number of incidents
38:54ground-to-ground.
38:57Now, in taking in total,
38:59this number is relatively
39:00very, very small.
39:02It's minute.
39:03But the problem is,
39:04nowadays,
39:05with the lethality of modern airplanes,
39:08if you have one incident,
39:09it results in seven or eight fatalities,
39:11where in past wars,
39:12such an incident might reflect
39:14a damaged vehicle
39:15or a wounded person.
39:16So we have to work this issue
39:18very, very hard.
39:20Roger, the reason I'm asking is
39:22you need to find out
39:23if this is a friendly or not.
39:25Yeah.
39:25They put in a lot of restrictions
39:27to try to protect
39:28against the friendly fire episodes.
39:30They put a lot of restrictions
39:31on anything that was going to do
39:32air-to-ground
39:33in close proximity to the troops.
39:36We had trained years
39:37of working with the Army,
39:38but the Army basically,
39:40with their attack helicopters,
39:41took care of most of the threats
39:43in their general vicinity.
39:45We worked further north,
39:46anywhere from three to five miles.
39:48We were able to watch
39:49the tanks roll across the border
39:51and watch them attack
39:53different Iraqi positions.
39:54But normally,
39:55they'd want us away
39:56from their actual
39:57sphere of influence.
39:58It was like a blitzkrieg
39:59all over again
40:00with our tanks rolling through
40:01at 40, 50 miles an hour
40:03or shooting on the run.
40:04Over the course of 43 days,
40:09more than 2,600 aircraft
40:10flew 110,000 sorties
40:12that crushed Iraq's defenses
40:14and left its troops
40:16battle-weary
40:16and anxious to surrender.
40:20Laser-guided weapons
40:21let us drop fewer bombs
40:23for greater effect
40:24than in past wars.
40:26But it should not be forgotten
40:27that the ultimate result
40:28of a massive military offensive
40:30is massive loss of life.
40:32The chief difference
40:34between this war and others
40:35is that the balance of casualties
40:37was wildly uneven.
40:40Coalition forces lost
40:41roughly 200 soldiers in combat.
40:44The Iraqi army lost
40:45at least 100,000.
40:48Here, Americans bury
40:50an Iraqi soldier killed
40:51during Operation Desert Storm.
40:54One of the things
40:56from Desert Storm
40:57that bothers me deeper,
40:59they call it the Nintendo War.
41:01The idea that it's nothing
41:02against my computer,
41:03against your bunker,
41:05or my bomb,
41:06against your truck.
41:07It loses sight of the fact
41:08that there's great suffering
41:10and death involved in war.
41:12And we must never use war
41:14as a solution to anything
41:15other than as a last result.
41:18So if we learn anything
41:19from Desert Storm,
41:20I hope it is
41:21that we don't want war,
41:23that war doesn't work,
41:24and that a would-be aggressor
41:27in the world
41:27will think twice
41:28before he engages in war.
41:29I hope that on our side
41:32that our people
41:34don't think that war
41:35is some sort of
41:35a bloodless
41:36mechanical thing.
41:39It is a terrible,
41:40terrible thing,
41:41and we must be
41:41very, very careful
41:42of how we enter into war
41:44and what we expect
41:45to get out of it.
41:46Was the Gulf War
41:48a successful campaign
41:49to liberate
41:50a powerless nation
41:51from the clutches
41:51of a fascist invader?
41:53Or was it a violent dispute
41:55over control
41:56of the world's oil supply?
41:57Was the war
42:03a watershed event
42:04that saw the United Nations
42:05act as one
42:06to tame a powerful
42:07rogue state?
42:09Were diplomatic sanctions
42:10given enough time
42:11to work?
42:13These questions
42:14are still being debated,
42:16and perhaps years
42:17will pass
42:17before the Gulf War's
42:18historical significance
42:19is decided.
42:21But it is certain
42:22that the conflict
42:23was a turning point
42:24in the history of warfare.
42:25For the first time,
42:27a massive,
42:28round-the-clock
42:29strategic air campaign
42:30was directly responsible
42:31for a decisive victory
42:32over a well-defended enemy.
42:35After 80 years,
42:36air power fulfilled
42:37its deadly potential.
42:38And then,
42:46give me a quick
42:47wrap on that tank.
42:50He's coming up.
42:51You can tell
42:51we've got such a
42:52high-tech
42:53to figure out
42:53how much gas we got.
42:54We're going to beat on it
42:55with our knuckles.
42:56Fuel flow at 140 gallons.
42:59He'll figure it out, Eric.
43:01Where is he?
43:02Are you sure
43:02he figured it out?
43:03I hope he will.
43:04He's intermittent
43:04fuel flow at 140 gallons.
43:06We can tell
43:07when he's coming in
43:08and transferring gas
43:09to footage.
43:10I think in
43:10any recent war,
43:12if you ask
43:12any fighter pilot
43:14who his hero is,
43:15he'd probably say
43:16the air-to-air
43:17tanker guys.
43:19I myself
43:19can remember
43:20in Vietnam
43:20being over
43:21Hanai Island
43:22almost out of gas,
43:24and here comes
43:24a 135
43:25way up north
43:27of where he ought to be
43:27because of the enemy threat
43:29and turning around,
43:30falling in behind,
43:31and getting enough fuel
43:32to get home.
43:32Tonight is an example
43:34going as far as we did.
43:36When I finally pressed
43:37across the border
43:38into Saudi Arabia,
43:41I was to the point
43:42where I was very low
43:44on fuel.
43:44We were on either side
43:45of the tanker's wing
43:46and proceeded
43:47across the border,
43:49and we traveled
43:49about 50 or 60 miles
43:51when another unit
43:53apparently
43:54was rolling in
43:57on the outskirts
43:58of Baghdad.
43:59And Baghdad,
44:02which hasn't been
44:03doing a whole lot
44:04against us
44:04because they can't see us,
44:05was apparently
44:06responding to all
44:08these conventional
44:09airplanes that they saw,
44:11and they were putting
44:11on another fantastic
44:12light show,
44:14which even from
44:1580 or 90 miles away
44:17it was,
44:17was painfully apparent
44:19to our tanker crew.
44:21And you could see
44:21the wings do this
44:22a little bit
44:23as they pondered
44:24whether this was
44:25the direction
44:26they were going
44:26or we were going,
44:27but to their credit,
44:28they continued on.
44:30They are people
44:30who are dedicated
44:31to getting us the gas
44:33and getting us
44:34where we need to.
44:35That takes a lot
44:36of guts
44:36to be sitting in there
44:37an airplane loaded
44:38with gas
44:38and going into harm's way.
44:41The Strategic Air Command
44:42deployed 256 KC-135 tankers
44:46and 46 KC-10 tankers
44:48during the Gulf War.
44:51Tankers are flying
44:52gas stations.
44:54Air refueling
44:54gives gas-guzzling
44:55fighters and bombers
44:56the ability
44:57to stay in the air.
44:59This was crucial
45:00in the Gulf War
45:00where some strike aircraft
45:02had to fly
45:021,000 miles
45:03to their targets
45:04then 1,000 miles
45:05home again.
45:07Every aircraft
45:08from every surface
45:09as well as
45:09many coalition planes
45:11used U.S. Air Force tankers.
45:13There was one position
45:37I forget the name of it
45:38where it was a common tanker position
45:40pretty much there
45:41O'Malley.
45:43You can go to this spot
45:44and find airborne fuel.
45:47Go there, top off,
45:48bring it back to the ship
45:49and basically have a lot of gas airborne
45:53for returning strikers.
45:58The KC-10 extender
46:00first flew in 1980.
46:02The Air Force has 59
46:04in its inventory.
46:05The KC-10 was based on the commercial DC-10
46:08and it combines the task of tanker and cargo carrier
46:12in one body.
46:13It can service all U.S. military aircraft
46:16and many NATO planes.
46:17The KC-135 strato tanker
46:25looks like a Boeing 707
46:27but it was designed
46:28to carry heavy fuel loads.
46:30It first flew in 1956.
46:33633 are now in service.
46:36The strato tanker
46:37is closely identified
46:38with another
46:39even longer serving
46:40SAC airplane
46:41the B-52
46:42Stratofortress.
46:43Like the B-52
46:45the KC-135
46:47has been updated
46:48and redesigned
46:49over the years.
46:50The Air Force expects
46:51it will continue flying
46:52well into the next century.
46:54And we're latched.
46:56He's got a carrier
46:57coming in on the right.
46:57That guy shot there.
46:58There's an empty hose
46:59up on the lead now.
47:03Watch your alligator
47:04on your boat down a little bit.
47:12One common problem
47:13most military pilots
47:14have faced
47:15is the phenomenon
47:15of vertigo.
47:17Vertigo often hits you
47:19when you're trying
47:19to hook up to a tanker
47:20during a rainstorm
47:21in pitch black weather.
47:23Your body tells you
47:24that your plane is crooked
47:25and you're going to crash.
47:27Your instruments
47:28say you're fine.
47:29It takes a great deal
47:30of discipline
47:31to trust the machine
47:32not your senses.
47:33Is this your career post?
47:35This is, uh,
47:37yeah,
47:38opposed data free.
47:39Yeah, that's a 9-7-0-9.
48:03Refueling gets to be
48:09second nature.
48:10Every guy that flew
48:11fighters over there
48:12probably did
48:13200-plus hookups
48:16during the war.
48:17We met tankers
48:18about 70 miles
48:20from our departure point
48:21and we refueled
48:23with the tankers
48:24all the way down
48:25through the Gulf
48:26and into our destination
48:28over in the Emirates.
48:30But, uh,
48:32shoot,
48:3310, maybe,
48:338 refuelings,
48:34quite a few.
48:35Especially when you load up
48:36the A-6
48:37with 10,000 pounds
48:38of ordnance,
48:3910,000-1,000-pound bombs,
48:41there's a lot of drag
48:41out there
48:42and you can suck down
48:43an enormous amount
48:44of gas
48:44and it was always
48:46a little comforting
48:46to know that there
48:47was a tanker up there
48:48and you could hit it
48:48once you came out
48:49of bad guy country.
48:50You've got an awful lot
48:56of airplanes floating
48:57around here.
49:01How do they know
49:04which one goes first?
49:05You know,
49:05the unsung heroes
49:07in this war
49:07are the tankers
49:08because they fill
49:10the skies
49:11of Saudi Arabia
49:12and Iraq
49:13and I might add Iraq.
49:15Yes,
49:16there were tankers
49:16over Iraq
49:17refueling fighters
49:18and bombers.
49:20During Operation Desert Storm,
49:23tankers flew
49:24approximately
49:2415,500 sorties,
49:27refueled
49:2746,000 aircraft
49:29and offloaded
49:30110 million gallons
49:32of fuel.
49:36I'm all right here on it,
49:37yeah.
49:42You see,
49:42it's really
49:43if it goes right,
49:44it's a well-orchestrated
49:46thing of beauty
49:47because it's
49:47that receivers
49:49get their gas
49:50if they're pulling out
49:50and breaking away
49:51to the left
49:51and they're not
49:5250 feet away
49:53from the tanker
49:54and the next ones
49:54are coming in.
49:55Number two tank
49:56is the lead tank now.
49:58I've got one more
49:59I've said three sheaves
50:00and it's big oval.
50:02It's a big wave up there.
50:03It's too bad
50:04we can't change
50:04no more time.
50:20I'm going to go up there.
50:21I'm going to go down the road
50:23so I'm going to move out.
50:24I'll see you next time.
50:24I'll see you next time.
50:25I'm going to go down the road
50:26and it's a big flood.
50:27I'll see you next time.
50:28It's a big river.
50:28How?
50:29I'll see you next time.
50:29You next time?
51:30
|
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