It's inconceivable!
Posted on 12/21/2002 3:34:23 PM PST by blam
U.S., Britain Plan Seaborne Attack on Iraq-Source
By Peter Graff
LONDON (Reuters) - The United States and Britain are planning a massive seaborne invasion of Iraq from the Gulf as the first stage in any ground war, a British defense ministry source said on Saturday.
"Discussions on future amphibious operations are at an advanced stage," the source said, adding that Britain would commit its elite 3 Commando Brigade of Royal Marines to the proposed invasion.
In the 1991 Gulf War U.S.-led forces assembled a large amphibious task force in the Gulf, but never mounted an assault by sea. Instead, infantry poured into parts of Iraq and Kuwait from Saudi Arabia by land.
The British defense ministry source said planners were this time leaning toward an amphibious assault in the case of a war with Iraq in part because of the difficulties of protecting a large ground-based army from chemical or biological attack.
"Would you really put 200,000 troops in one place and let them be targets for an attack?" the source said.
The amphibious option also reduces the diplomatic and political sensitivity of moving large land forces into countries in the region which have not yet publicly given consent for their territory to be used as a launch-pad for an invasion.
Other ground forces could deploy later, after amphibious forces had already opened up a front, the British source said.
CONTROL OF MAIN SEA LANES
The United States, Britain and any other allies that join them would have an easier time launching a seaborne attack this time than in 1991 because they already control the main sea lanes into Iraq and have made sure they are free from mines.
Over the past year, Australian, U.S. and British warships patrolling the Gulf to enforce U.N. sanctions on Iraq have moved their operations from international waters into Iraqi territory, Reuters reported from aboard warships in the region last week.
The allied navies now operate freely up to the mouths of the Khor Abd Allah and Shaat Al Arab estuaries, where Iraq's great rivers spill over salt marshes into the Gulf. The Shaat Al Arab gives access to Iraq's main port of Basra on the Euphrates.
Three British mine-clearing ships are in the Gulf helping make sure the waterways are clear.
Britain's 3 Commando Brigade, the elite force that made up the main British contribution to fighting in Afghanistan last year, would send about 3,000 men to the amphibious operation to join a much larger contingent of Americans.
A large British naval task force is due to sail from Britain at the end of January, and would presumably include the amphibious units.
Britain and the United States both say that Iraq has failed to supply a complete account of its missiles and nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, as required by a tough-worded U.N. Security Council resolution.
Washington and London indicated that the prospect of a war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in early 2003 was now increasingly likely.
Funny ... I seem to remember they were saying that during the last Gulf War. Tricks like that don't always work twice.
No, but what if it IS true. Sadaam is thinking "I won't be tricked again" and doesn't prepare for it. Kinda like a batter looking for the curveball, and gets the cheese in on the fists.
Remember, in Gulf War #1, the desicion not to use an amphibious assault was made only after all the elements to do so were present.
I read 2-3 books on the war and Schwartzcofp(sp) said that his biggest fear was that he was falling into a trap set by Saddam when he decided to do the "hail Mary/left hook" into the western desert. His fear was that Saddam left the western desert open to sucker him into that area so that he (Saddam) could detonate a nuclear device out there in the wilderness.
I agree. The attack will probably be very spread out to minimize the effects of bio/chem attacks.
Upwind of Baghdad, he he he he he
It's inconceivable!
By Robert Fox and Sean Rayment
(Filed: 22/12/2002)
The Telegraph (UK)
The Royal Navy is planning its biggest amphibious landing operation since the Falklands as the main British effort in a war to topple Saddam Hussein in the new year.
The whole of the Royal Marines 3 Commando Brigade, which made up the bulk of the landing force in the Falklands, will join United States forces to seize the strategically vital southern port of Basra, Iraq's second city.
Allied commanders regard the capture of Basra, along with its docks at the head of the Gulf and two airfields, as extremely important to the invasion.
The amphibious force being assembled for the task is likely to be at least 40,000 strong. The 5,500 Royal Marines will fight alongside two expeditionary units of the US marines.
The attack will involve the naval task force which sails to the Gulf early next month, led by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal after its conversion into a commando assault ship.
Four Royal Navy minehunters, which are already in the Gulf on exercise, have been asked by the Americans to lead mine-clearing operations in the northern Gulf and to open the important Shatt al Arab waterway leading to Basra and the Euphrates river system.
"The Americans have asked for the Royal Marines and we will send them," a senior MoD official confirmed. In all, Britain's naval contribution will involve more than 20 ships from the Navy and Fleet Auxiliary, led by Ark Royal and the helicopter carrier Ocean.
Men of 3 Commando Brigade are being vaccinated against anthrax and smallpox. They will soon undergo intensive training against biological and chemical attack, directed by specialists from the Ministry of Defence's chemical warfare research centre at Porton Down.
After a period of exercises, including practice landings in either the Mediterranean or the Gulf, they are expected to be ready for action by the end of January.
Preparations for action are being stepped up after signs that America has set its sights on February to begin an attack on Saddam - soon after the January 27 deadline for Hans Blix, the United Nations' chief weapons inspector, to report to the Security Council on Iraqi co-operation.
The other main British contributions to the war are expected to be a small armoured division, RAF bombers, surveillance and refuelling aircraft, and special forces, which the Americans rate as the best in Nato. Some elements of the SAS and Special Boat Squadron are probably already in the region.
Their main priority is to prevent any attack on Israel by Scud missiles from mobile launchers in the western deserts of Iraq. The SAS and SBS will also be searching for secret command bunkers and mobile biological warfare laboratories, which have been identified to American and British intelligence by Iraqi defectors.
By the beginning of February the Americans will be expected to have between 250,000 and 300,000 ground troops in the region - including four armoured and armoured-infantry divisions together with the 82nd Airborne and the 101 Air Cavalry Division.
The war will be launched with a ferocious air assault designed to achieve the total annihilation of Saddam's forces within a month.
Planes from a large fleet of US carriers positioned in the Gulf will launch hundreds of sorties a day against Iraqi targets. British jets based in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and from the Ark Royal carrier group will also take part.
Advances in technology mean that each of the US carriers - the 86,000-ton Kitty Hawk, Harry S Truman, Abraham Lincoln and the soon-to-arrive Constellation - will be able to hit up to 700 targets a day, compared to no more than 162 in the last Gulf war.
The air war will be preceded by an attack involving the use of thousands of cruise missiles being fired from British and US ships and nuclear-powered submarines.
They will have as their targets air defence installations and command and control centres, effectively rendering Iraqi forces defenceless from air attack and unable to communicate with their high command.
British, and probably Dutch and Italian, fighter-bombers led by RAF GR4 Tornados from Bahrain will attack local military targets round Basra. By then the Americans will have up to four aircraft carriers in the Gulf and Arabian Sea with 348 strike aircraft involved. A fifth carrier, Kitty Hawk, converted to a commando and special forces platform, will lead the amphibious fleet, including the British.
The attack will be free flowing - with less of the rigid phasing of Desert Storm and Desert Sabre of 1991. The allies will attack in the south to take Basra, encourage rebellion among the Kurds in the north, where the British have been training local militia, and conduct commando sabotage raids throughout the country. An all-out attack on Baghdad will be mounted only as a last resort because it is hoped that the Saddam regime will have collapsed well before this becomes necessary.
The allies appear to be reserving the option of having to finish the job after August, when the weather becomes cooler and ground operations are more feasible. For this reason Tony Blair is offering a smaller ground force than the one that fought for Kuwait 11 years ago, a small division, or what the Army calls a "brigade battle group".
This will be based on the 7th Armoured Brigade commanded by Brigadier Graham Binns, who won a Military Cross for counter guerrilla operations in Bosnia. The whole ground group will be under Major General Robin Brims, who has a distinguished record from the service in the Balkans and Northern Ireland.
The brigade will have at least four tank and infantry battle groups, plus one in reserve and its own brigades of engineers, logistics and artillery equipped with at least four regiments of AS90 155mm self-propelled howitzers and the MLRS rocket batteries, which proved particularly deadly in the desert in 1991.
The main problem is sustaining the force in the field because logistical and repair services face being overstretched after four or five months. If a significant drive for Baghdad is ordered before summer, the 7th brigade is likely to be joined by the 4th Armoured brigade with three more battalion-sized battle groups by late February.
For planners and commanders in all three services, the process of going to war has begun. As one senior commander said this week: "War is now more probable than not."
Q: How many beers will I have to celebrate the liberation of Iraq?
Hee hee, that's what we told Saddam last time...
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