Posted on 03/13/2003 12:54:31 PM PST by knighthawk
MANAMA (Reuters) - Any U.S.-led attack on Iraq is likely to start with a hail of stubby-winged Tomahawk cruise missiles fired with supposed pinpoint accuracy by what may be the most powerful naval armada in history, military experts say.
In its combat debut, the long-range Tomahawk opened the U.S.-led war that drove Iraqi invaders from Kuwait in 1991, cutting the initial risk to allied pilots and warplanes.
Since then, the U.S. Navy has used variants of the $1.4 million Tomahawk to start military campaigns in Bosnia in 1995 and in Afghanistan in 2001.
Britain began its supporting role against al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Afghanistan with Tomahawks, which are 18 feet long, fired from a submarine.
"It's not tell-us-which-building, it's tell-us-which-window you want it to go through," said Lt. Garrett Kasper, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based naval component of the U.S. Central Command, which would run a U.S.-led attack on Iraq.
Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on March 4 that U.S. war plans entailed shocking the Iraqi leadership into submission with an attack "much, much, much different" from the 43-day Gulf War in 1991.
He declined to give details.
But other military officers have said the plan calls for hurling as many as 3,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles, including Tomahawks, in the first 48 hours of an air campaign, to be followed quickly by ground operations.
SHOCK START
"If asked to go into conflict in Iraq, what you'd like to do is have it be a short conflict," General Myers told reporters. "The best way to do that would be to have such a shock on the system that the Iraqi regime would have to assume early on the end was inevitable."
Tomahawks may be fired by destroyers, cruisers and submarines protecting the three U.S. aircraft carriers now cruising in and around the Gulf and the two in the Eastern Mediterranean.
A typical carrier battle group packs as many as 400 Tomahawks, according to retired Rear Admiral Stephen Baker at the private Center for Defense Information in Washington.
The Navy's declared land-attack weapon of choice, the Tomahawk would probably be used against high-value targets such as command and control centers, electrical generating facilities and weapons assembly and storage spots.
The missile, made by Raytheon Co., uses three separate guidance systems to close in on a target, ultimately comparing pictures with a version in its memory as it skims in at about 550 miles per hour 100-300 feet above the ground.
Its compactness, at 20 inches in diameter and with a wingspan of less than nine feet, also enables it to escape detection by many radars.
And we're still making them.
Michael
If you are easily startled, turn down the volume before playing.
;-)
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