Scud Hunting with Delta Force and the SAS

specialoperations.com ^ | 1997 | Thomas B. Hunter

[VaBthang4]

[Poohbah]

General Horner tells the tale of an SAS officer giving the scoop to an F-15E Strike Eagle. The SAS officer had a Scud spotted, and thought that was the target the F-15E driver was targeting. Turns out the zoomie was targeting ANOTHER Scud vehicle less than 300 meters away from the SAS officer that the SAS guy never saw (because it was at the base of the cliff he was standing on).

"Ah, roger, Yank, we hear your engines and--"

(Bomb hits Scud launcher at based of cliff, enormous fireball goes up cliff.)

"JAY-SUS CHRIST!"

Box score: one Scud launcher blown to hell. One SAS officer singed by the fireball (and probably in need of changing his underwear). One Scud launcher takes the hint and di-di-maus the heck outta Dodge.

[VaBthang4]

Starting my Military Ping List...

[VaBthang4]

Dangerous work. Simple mistakes can cost you your life....but'cha gotta stay loose.

[marginovera]

These missions were not without loss to the hunters. At approximately 0300 on 21 February, four pilots and crew from the 160th SOAR and three Delta operators were killed when an MH60 helicopter crashed into a sand dune during zero-visibility weather conditions near the Ar Ar airfield. The ground team was reportedly conducting counterforce operations when one of the team was injured in a fall from a cliff and required medevac, to which the 160th responded. Similarly, one eight-man SAS team was compromised while on a reconnaissance mission. Four of these troopers died during escape-and-evasion after they were engaged by subsequent Iraqi patrols. Commandos from both groups were injured in firefights with Iraqi forces on a number of occasions in addition to casualties from exposure to unexpectedly cold nighttime weather.



the above is what seems to be described in Andy McNab's "Bravo Two Zero".

[marginovera]

Bravo Two Zero
by Andy McNab

Look inside this book

[DK Zimmerman]

Regrettably, the most telling point of this piece is that by omission, it confirms that we never got a single scud on the ground.

So much for our sensors, intel gathering, and USAF that thinks it can win any war by itself.

[Mo1]

WOW .. thanks for the ping

[Eastbound]

Thanks for the Ping! Great piece of history.

"Later, they launched a nuclear-capable missile into the Mediterranean Sea to clearly demonstrate to Iraq one of the possible responses to further Scud attacks."

Hope Saddam's memory doesn't fail him.

[CIBvet]

Nothin' like a little snoopin' 'n poopin' to increase the pucker-factor and make for a real fun time!!

[VaBthang4]

If you wanna be on [or God forbid, off] my military ping list...FRe-mail me.

[spetznaz]

Regrettably, the most telling point of this piece is that by omission, it confirms that we never got a single scud on the ground. So much for our sensors, intel gathering, and USAF that thinks it can win any war by itself. - DK Zimmerman

From the article: One 30-man SAS team, reportedly deployed from Al Jouf, successfully assaulted a Scud command-and-control center, despite the presence of an estimated 300 Iraqi military personnel.

Also from the article: In addition to their targeting duties, Delta undertook other direct action missions against the Scuds. These included using long-range, .50-caliber sniper rifles to disable and destroy missiles both in rearming farms and those mounted on their TELs. Other interdictions reportedly involved eliminating Scud crews as well as the use of AT4 anti-tank missiles on larger targets

I would say the Special Forces teams did a lot of mayhem against the Iraqis, and they did get several Scuds before they were launched. I have not gotten sufficient info on the efforts of the Deltas in the conflict (although the article clearly shows they did a lot of stuff against the Iraqis) however i have read reports of what the SAS was doing behind the scenes and i can tell you it is not only amazing it is almost superhuman!

[spetznaz]

Thanx for including me on your ping list. Amazing graphics by the way.

Also have you included Psyop and Marine Inspector?

[Crossbow Eel]

"So much for our sensors, intel gathering, and USAF that thinks it can win any war by itself. "Now we have:

Unmanned aircraft that can launch missles
Satellites that can see through clouds
Lazerd and GPS guided bombs aplenty
Spec Ops that can move inside Iraq locating the convoys moving the missle/trucks

[Boot Hill]

DK Zimmerman says:   "So much for our sensors, intel gathering, and USAF that thinks it can win any war by itself."

Ever the techy, I figure that just means we don't have enough sensor capability. All the Iraqi scuds (and several other of their missiles) were liquid fueled missiles that used red fuming nitric acid as the oxidizer. This stuff is always out gassing and the fumes should be detectable from quite a distance by viewing in the appropriate optical spectrum or using semiconductor NOx fume detectors. Follow the NOx plume back to its source and that's a gotcha. As long as we weren't tracking camel farts, this might work. Equipping a UAV with this technology could go a long way to locating scuds.

Regards,

Boot Hill

[SLB]

FYI

[taxed2death]

I saw a TV show a few years back that stated that not one single scud was shot down by our Patriot missles. The show said that the display of the Patriots exploding in mid air was just a ruse to demoralize the enemy and to pacify the Israelies. The show went on to say that virtually all of the scuds were destroyed by SAS and Special Forces on the ground. Is there any truth to this?

[knighthawk]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/weapons/patriot.html