Operation Iraqi Freedom - Day 1 - LIVE THREAD

20 March 2003 | An.American.Expatriate

[An.American.Expatriate]

This is a thread to collect all the breaking stories regarding the Libration of Iraq

[Oldeconomybuyer]

All:  Make sure your flags are up!

[section9]

I'm guessing they are doing some analysis to determine whether or not it was him.

I'm guessing that it was taped. Saddam probably made it same day in preparation for the upcoming campaign. I don't think Saddam would go live in the middle of an attack.

It's three p.m. in Baghdad right now. Next wave begins at dusk before the moon comes out. JMHO.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Peach]

Good. Just got television and internet access back a few minutes ago due to storm. Before I lost cable, I thought I heard two things: 1) there had been 2-3 surgical strikes last night beyond the original one; and 2) that we may wait 2-3 days before shock and awe. Is this correct?

[theophilusscribe]

Sunburn info: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/moskit.htm

Moskit
SS-N-22 Sunburn

Moskit is the aircraft variant of the naval missile 3M80 (SS-N-22 Sunburn, the designation 3M80 apparently referring to the Mach 3 speed of 1980 weapons) used on "Sovremennyy" destroyers (eight missiles on each) and on "Tarantul [Tarantula] III patrol ships (four missiles on each).

The 3M82 "Mosquito" missiles have the fastest flying speed among all antiship missiles in today's world. It reaches Mach 3 at a high altitude and its maximum low-altitude speed is M2.2, triple the speed of the American Harpoon. When slower missiles, like the French Exocet are used, the maximum theoretical response time for the defending ship is 150-120 seconds. This provides time to launch countermeasures and employ jamming before deploying "hard" defense tactics such as launching missiles and using quick-firing artillery. But the 3M82 "Mosquito" missiles are extremely fast and give the defending side a maximum theoretical response time of merely 25-30 seconds, rendering it extremely difficult employ jamming and countermeasures, let alone fire missiles and quick-firing artillery.

The aircraft version, officially called ASM-MMS and apparently also Kh-4, is intended specially for Su-27K (Su-33) carrier-based fighter aircraft. It was for the first time shown to the CIS leaders in February 1992 in Machulishche and then to the public in August 1992 at the Moscow Air Show in Zhukovskiy.

The missile is propelled by a dual (rocket-jet) engine operating by the same principle as the Kh-31 engine. The missile, suspended under the aircraft, has a folding wing. The missile is guided by an autopilot during the initial fight stage, with possible correction by the aircraft pilot, and by active radar during the final flight stage.

[chigung]

I think this is to confuse the Iraqi troops... so they let their guard down.

We are not going to let him just keep hitting us with those missiles.

The hammer will drop after dark.

[txrangerette]

Anyone want to weigh in about some
Iraqi spokesman(in khaki and beret, no
less) spouting off earlier this a.m.?

Live from NY!

We are at war with these murderous
thugs...

[An.American.Expatriate]

Virus Warning from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2868023.stm

[Green]

Peach,
I don't know what happened after the first strike last night. I fell asleep while watching the news and haven't been able to catch up on last night since so much is already happening this morning. I've heard lots of speculation this morning from military to the talking heads about when the major air strike will begin and it is all over the spectrum.

[theophilusscribe]

More Sunburn: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=18173

© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com


Sunburn missile test
The Chinese military is set to conduct a flight test soon of one its newly acquired Russian anti-ship cruise missiles, according to intelligence officials. Preparations for the test firing of the SSN-22 Sunburn missile were detected during the past week and reported to senior officials. The missiles are deployed aboard a Russian-built cruise missile destroyer.

The officials said there is more bad news: China's second Sovremenny-class cruise missile destroyer is on its way to China from Russia. The first destroyer was sent in February.

Word of the Chinese cruise missile test comes a week after the House passed legislation to punish Russia with economic sanctions for selling the supersonic missiles to China.

The missile test will take place in waters off southern China.

The supersonic missiles were designed specifically by the Russians to sink U.S. warships and their purchase followed the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis when two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups were dispatched to waters near Taiwan in response to Chinese missile test firings that landed north and south of the island.

Defense officials said the first batch of Sunburns -- called Moskit, by the Russians -- was delivered to China in May. Navy officials have described the weapon as the most significant recent military development for the Chinese navy because of the missile's ship-killing power.

(Oct. 13, 2000)

[txrangerette]

Flag will be up, just waiting for the
daylight here...

[Tree of Liberty]

Fox reporting that we are launching mortar and artillary into Iraq. Quoting Reuters. No return fire yet.

[goldylight]

Fox news reporting we are firing into iraq from kuwait now.

[maquiladora]

Thats roughly correct, it seems the main attack will be 1 couple of days away but there will be some strikes all the time. About 40 cruise missiles were launched last night and there was an F-117A raid too. In the south, about 10 artillery batteries were attacked from the air as well as some surface-to-surface missile systems. There have been some strike in Scud Alley too. This morning, Iraq fired 4 missiles at Kuwait, at least one was a Scud and 2 were not intercepted by Patriots. At the moment there is an ongoing artillery exchange along the Kuwait/Iraq border and there are reports of fighting up North too.

[goldylight]

Fox news reporting we are firing into iraq from kuwait now.

[Green]

So....were these missiles a "proscribed" weapon? If they are, where are they mentioned in Blix's report?

[Peach]

I'm with you, Dog. If we're doing this to reduce civilian damage, what about the risk to our troops in Kuwait and about Israelis? If we can't get Hussein through surgical strikes (had their chance last night) - how about getting him through the mother of all bombs and shock and awe.

[Timeout]

Safire has new info this morning on French weapons sales to Iraq...just 7 months ago!

snippet..from an email FROM the director general of CIS Paris TO Qilu Chemicals in China regarding a preliminary order:

""We are about to have one of our affiliates open a L/C [Letter of Credit] for an initial order of 20,000 kg. of sealant type HTBP-III. . . . The drums should have a label mentioning the nature of the goods, same as your sample: `modified polybatadiene [sic] sealant type III,' it is not necessary that the label shows the name of your company.

"Safire's Latest

[Cboldt]

Mornin' Dog. I wouldn't put any stock in predictions by media. It's hard enough for them to report past event accurately.

[maquiladora]

This has been reported on Sky for the past 4 hours now.

It's ongoing.

[The Wizard]

they said that today's stuff was going to be operation southern watch on steroids