Posted on 01/05/2002 4:14:44 PM PST by knak
UNITED STATES defence chiefs may have to review their strategy for phase 2 of the war after it emerged that Baghdad could have acquired a radar system capable of detecting America's multi-billion-pound fleet of stealth bombers.
The radar is believed to be the same Czech-built type used by Serb forces to shoot down a US F117 Nighthawk stealth bomber and seriously damage another during the war in Kosovo in 1999.
US intelligence chiefs believe that Iraqi generals attempted to buy a system for £176 million from the Czech Republic in 1997 but the deal collapsed after it was exposed by the CIA.
The Telegraph, however, has learnt that after the closure of the Czech defence company Tesla-Pardubice in 1998, two of its Tamara radar systems, which Iraq wanted to acquire, "disappeared", and might have been acquired by rogue arms traders working for Baghdad.
A former employee of the company said last night: "Tesla-Pardubice closed in 1998. It had two radar systems that had not been sold but they have disappeared. Nobody knows where they are."
Rob Hewson, the editor of Jane's Air Launched Weapons, said the weight of circumstantial evidence indicated that Iraq had probably acquired a radar system capable of "seeing" stealth bombers.
He said: "The Pentagon is faced with the prospect that Iraq may have a system that can see stealth bombers and they are very, very worried."
The disclosure is likely to affect the next stages of the war against terrorism and influence whether the US decides to carry out a full-scale attack against Saddam Hussein's regime.
Last week it emerged that stocks of US air-launched cruise missiles had been virtually exhausted after attacks on Kosovo and Sudan, further hampering Pentagon plans for an attack against Iraq.
The B2 stealth bomber and the F117 stealth fighter both played vital roles in the Kosovan and Afghan wars and, together with the mass use of cruise missiles, they are part of a crucial first phase of US attack plans.
Such is the sensitivity surrounding stealth aircraft that even the mere suggestion that an enemy power may have the capability to detect or shoot one down is enough to ground the 20-strong fleet.
A spokesman for the US Department of Defence, said: "It stands to reason that Iraq would want to get its hands on a radar system capable of detecting stealth bombers.
" In the Gulf war, it was the early F117 attacks that put most of their air defence systems out of commission. But we don't know whether they have such a system at the moment."
The Czech radar system uses passive detection to pick up electronic emissions from stealth aircraft.
A spokesman for the Czech Embassy confirmed that when the company went bankrupt in 1998 it still had at least two Tamara systems, but he refused to comment on whether they had disappeared.
The B2 stealth aircraft is painted with a substance that absorbs radar waves, producing an image on a radar screen the size of a large marble. The Serb forces, however, demonstrated what can be achieved by being able to detect stealth aircraft.
During the Kosovo conflict, the Serbs are believed to have plugged powerful computers into their air-defence radar system that help to reveal the flight paths from the faint stealth radar signatures.
When a stealth bomber was suspected to be flying through their area they saturated the sky with missile and heavy machine-gun fire and managed to shoot one down.
Osama bin Laden has been named Iraq's Man of The Year, according to the official Iraqi press, because of the way in which he has "raised the image of Islam and defied the might of the USA".
Yep, they are the same ones who not only sold out to China but sold out to Iraq before the Ghulf War.
Isn't it interesting that now China is a big backer of Iraq and BIn Laden terrorists and ALQaeda? China built the fiber optic communications connecting the radar installations in Iraq that can shoot at our stealth fighters and bombers. Maybe the new radar came from CHina too?
Not real quick in today's combat arena.
S - L - O - W LVM
If you need a ticket for the clue bus, then go get one. Otherwise quit speculating on things that you know absolutely nothing about.
Want to guess where the Predator operates from?
Shut up!
LVM
Other posts on this thread debate the fact that the F-117 really is a fighter. How silly.
I would call it a precesion delivery platform.
What would you call it?
LVM
Giggle.
Please invite your "sources" to visit Nellis AFB, NV. Go to Freedom Park. Every aircraft ever based at Nellis (maybe) is on static display. You can walk underneath an F-117.
Did your "sources" consider the fact the the AIM-9 would have to be carried in the bomb bay. Can't be carried on the outside. True, I'm sure the AF could mod the thing to do that.
But why?
Ask your "sources" if they have ever heard of the concept long range - extremely long range - air to air missles. We do have those in inventory, ya know.
LVM
Using cell phone band transmissions!
LVM
Yeah. No one seems to understand the HELL our nation is undergoing. It is a repeat of history.
Last year. Time flies when you're having fun.
I'd call the 117 a now obsolete specialized aircraft.
"Precesion" (sic) wasn't precise.
Either you meant precession as in preceding, or perhaps precision as in precise. Doesn't matter to me. I don't care.
It would also seem that sensative infra-red cameras would be a big hurdle for stealth technology to overcome, but what do I know.
Sometimes I suspect the defense industry of selling elixors.
One must remember an enormous segment if no the bulk of the French people sided with Germany at the beginning of WWII... forming the Vichey pro-Hitler government.
With the singular exception of the Free French, and their leader Charles DeGaulle who fled to England, the French of that era were no friends of America.
And it should come as no surprise that the French of today, in general, are no different. For the most part they absolutely hate America and are jealous of our freedoms and way of life..... Yes, there are many exceptions....The French people in the countryside are generally friendly and do not share the devious perversity of their counterparts in urban, French society.
For the French, anything is for sale....Honor, country, and friends. These people aren't refered to as a "nation of shopkeeprs" for no reason.
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