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| Technological superiority of British and American forces shattered Iraq during Gulf war : Lessons for India | | | NIKHIL GUPTA | 6/16/2011 8:16:34 PM |
| A nation that has weak army cannot defend itself . There are many examples in India itself that speak about Indian inability of defending against the invaders . Take the example of MehmoodGaznavi who could launch attacks on India and could cause so much destruction in Indian land after defeating the local kings who couldnot stop Gaznavi from causing plunder in India. The case of American victory in Gulf war shows that the technicaly superior forces can easily crush the weak force.
The military superiority of the American forces was seen in the Gulf war when the command and control of the opposite Iraqi force was completely shattered and the ground assault of only four days was enough to make the feared Republican Guard divisions of Iraqi military surrender meekly . In 1980s Iraq fought a bloody war against its neighbour Iran over a border dispute over the ownership of a waterway which borders the two countries. For many years Iraq steadily lost ground against the numerically superior but technologically inferior Iranians. Later Iraq changed tactics and by using chemical weapons and massive artillery bombardments Iraqi Republican Guard made rapid advances and gained about 500 miles of the territory.This war between Iraq and Iran so clogged the Waterway with silt and debris thatit was now useless. The war left Iraq with huge debts mainly to Kuwait . By 1990 Iraq was in severe financial difficulties and it accused Kuwait of overproducing and flooding the market with cheap oil. The Rumalia oil field in northern Kuwait was another sore point between Iraq and Kuwait . The Iraqis owned half this oil field and wanted the rest of it and they suspected that the Kuwaitis stole oil from the Iraqi half of the oil field.May be because of these reasons that in August 1990 about one lakh Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait .The divisions of the Republican Guard in conjunction with Special Forces launched amphibious assaults and landed at important sites . The Kuwaiti resistance was quickly crushed.This invasion of Kuwait by Iraq was condemned worldwide and the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a trade embargo against Iraq . Iraq's access to the sea was practically blocked as the United States assembled a large multinational task force in the Persian Gulf and another was formed in Saudi Arabia. By the end of 1990 this force numbered some 40,000 troops from 30 countries, though the United States retained its high profile as the dominant partner in the coalition.In November 1990 the UN Security Council set 15 January 1991 as the deadline for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. Two days after this deadline coalition forces began an air bombardment of Iraq that destroyed most of the Iraqi defence units and crippled its communication and radar centres . These air attacks continued for more than a month . The casualities on the Iraqi side were heavy whereas the American and coalition forces suffered minimum casualities with American airforce attacking Iraqi establishments with impunity .
On paper the Iraqi Armed forces were impressive with a very large manpower and high morale because of recent victory against Iran and tactics of using chemical weapons and heavy artillery . At one time Iraq was considered the only country in the Arabia that could seriously challenge the Israel . Its army had about sixty divisions and out of them only few were fully armoured and mechanised . The Iraqi Army and the Air force lacked the ability to fight at night and their DIRECT HIT RATE was poor. The inability to fight at night was fully exploited by the Americans and Britishers and the coalition forces and they flew aircrafts over Iraq with impunity causing deadly devastation of Iraq’s military establishments . Although the Iraqis had about 5500 tanks but most of them were unfit to fight against a modern MBT ( Main Battle Tank ). Tank gunnery was also poor. The most modern was an unarmoured T-72 whose autoloader could grab a gunner's finger if he was a bit slow. The only silver lining in the Iraqi ground force was the 155 mm Artillery that caused some trouble to the coalition force’s ground assault .
Iraq’s Anti Aircraft ability was also poor except for some Russian armaments that could shoot down low flying aircrafts . The Americans overcame this by flying at high altitudes and using guided SMART BOMBS that had a very high direct hit rate .The IraqiAir force was large but their best planes were Mirage F-1's and MIG 29's but the MIGs were without the LOOK DOWN SHOOT DOWN ability . The Iraqi forces did have large stocks of chemical weapons and had used them in combat in the previous war against Iran .By the time the War started the Iraqis had around 400,000 men on the front line with about 150,000 men in Kuwait alone. USA quickly rushed in airborne combat troops and tank killing helicopters. The RAF Tornado F3 and Jaguar aircraft poundedIraq .The Air attacks concentrated on destroying the COMMAND AND CONTROL OF THE Iraqi defence . Without the command and control the Iraqi ground forces became practically leaderless and directionless . The coalition fighters totally controlled the air space over Iraq and this allowed unrestricted and unmolested use of Helicopters on the open battlegrounds. Otherwise the helicopters are a piece of cake for the enemy because of the slow speeds of the choppers . But the control of air space and destruction of Iraqi radars by the American forces ensured that even the helicopters had a field day in this war . Another objective of the coalition forces was to destroy the elite Republican Guard Divisions of the Iraqi army. The plan was to carry out strategic bombing, gain Air superiority, bomb the Iraqi artillery, troops and trenches and then finally launch a ground offensive. The most important part was the ground offensive. Only ground forces in particular infantry can take and hold ground, although airpower was vital in softening up the Iraqi trenches and forces, it is nearly impossible to dislodge or destroy an opposing force without the use of ground troops. The Britishers with an armoured Division and artillery M109 regiments provided heavy punch to the coalition ground forces . The Americans used the concept of DEEP BATTLE where the assault does not just attack the enemy front lines but the whole military organisation, the enemy front, the enemy reserves and importantly enemy’s command and control without which the enemy troops are blind and helpless.
On the first day of ground attack the American forces steam rolled the Iraqi Divisions by outclassing Iraqi Armour and inflicted heavy causalities and destroying the Iraqi intercommunication abilities . On second day despite poor weather conditions the British ground assault encountered the Iraqi Armoured Division and drove it off and thus the coalition forces gained ground very fastly . On the third day the Republican Guard was hunted and destroyed and the coalition ground assault by its armoured division left the Iraqi frontline running for cover . The coalition victory was imminent and thus the Americans with their superior and technologically advanced forces shattered the Iraqi military .
The mistakes that Iraqi forces made are not difficult to judge . First of all Iraq should have seen to it that adequate spares were available for launching the Kuwait invasion . The Iraqi Army units were desperately short of technicians .Any person related with defence knows very well that in modern wars , the importance of the spares and the technical cadre is too much to ignore . Even though the Iraqi army was very large with a large number of reserves , the training of those reserves was not up to the mark and as the actual war showed , the Iraqi ground forces that had performed well against Iran couldn’t withstand the ground attack of the Americans . Secondly when Iraqi forces had captured Kuwait and were at the borders of Saudi Arabia , then Iraq had very large troop concentration and could have easily captured Saudi Arabia as well . This would have ensured that the Iraq could get hold on the sea ports of Saudi Arabia and could also use its infrastructure . And if Iraq was in control of Saudi Arabia , then it could become very difficult for the Americans to launch ground attacks because even though the light equipment and troops could be flown , but the heavy equipment like Tanks etc could only be shipped . With Iraq controlling the sea ports of Saudi Arabia , it could give better leverage to the Iraqi forces .
Thirdly even if Iraq didn’t invade Saudi Arabia , it could have easily attacked the bases of the coalition forces within the territory of Saudi Arabia . Lastly the inability of the Iraqi forces for night battles and its inefficient anti aircraft equipment ensured that the coalition forces had complete control over the Iraqi air space.
The lessons that India can draw from this war range from enhancing Indian military capability to developing nuclear deterrent and delivery systems . It is well known that India in surrounded by failed or unsuccessful nations except the very strong China . The Indian armed forces need to be ever vigilant so that the invaders are given befitting reply . One important thing that India needs to do is to immediately debar the most bright TECHNICAL students from unnecessarily going into administration services . If the bright candidates run for civil services then what will happen to the technical services of the nation ? How can a nation develop militarily when there is a general feeling among candidates to leave RESEARCH jobs and go for administration services ? By the way the civil services should not be that important in a developed nation or a nation that wants to develop. This measure should be immediately taken at national level by curtailing most of discretionary powers to civil service and an express order to give due respect to technical services . Actually the best national talent should go to RESEARCH and SCIENTIFIC services , POLICE services and the ARMY services. The Americans could shatter Iraqi forces so easily only because of the most advanced and technologically superior equipment that allowed Americans to blind the Iraqi defences . Even recently , the highly successful and militarily executed operation for killing Osama inside the Pakistani territory was possible only with the “map of the world” technology . The radars of Pakistan could not see the incoming American choppers and this was very surprising . Though India has adequate capabilities but still the defence procurement should be made quick and transparent . The technological military industrial complex needs to be developed in India on a large scale with tactical nuclear deployment at all times so that any rouge nation knows the dangers of doing any misadventure . After the successful military operation of American forces in the killing of Osama , Indian army chief also gave statement that India is fully capable of launching surgical strikes . This statement should have been given after India actually does some successful operation because action speaks louder than statements . The shortage of officers in defence services can be lessened by increasing the pay scales of army personnel and this can be done by increasing the defence budget by a factor of two. Lets hope and pray that our army is strong enough to defend India always.
The content a part of which is taken from public domain has no bearing on any person or any organisation and the author is guided by the motto “ THE ROYALE GUPTA WARRIORS never fight for themselves but fight for a bigger cause . “ VandeMatram and Jai Hind. |
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