Military History: How Stealth was Baptized by Fire During Desert Storm 25 Years Ago

One of the most spellbinding military capabilities used 25 years ago during the Operation Desert Storm was stealth technology. Despite many billions of dollars invested, until that point it had never been proven in actual combat on a large scale. This would change in the opening moments of the conflict as F-117s raided Baghdad with dramatic results.

By January of 1991, the F-117 had come out of total secrecy, but it still was a shadowy weapon system. It had been operating under a veil of the top-secret classification out of Tonopah Test Range Airport through the 1980s, buts its actual effectiveness was still up for debate. The jet’s mission over Panama was less than successful, but that was nothing compared to going after strategic targets deep inside a super-missile engagement zone and anti-aircraft artillery trap over a huge metropolitan city that was literally waiting to be attacked.

On the first night of Desert Storm, the small force of “Black Jets” were given the job of sneaking through Iraq’s border radar defenses, and were to be over Baghdad right as the air war kicked off at 3 a.m. They would use their hardened 2,000lb GBU-27 laser guided bombs to hit telecommunications, power and command and control centers, along with other strategic targets.

In effect, they would cut out the Iraqi military’s eyes, striking at the heart of their ability to see what is going on around their country and their ability to react to it militarily.

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Military History: History’s Last Left Hook?

Military Envelopments with Strategic Implications

“Left hook” is a boxing term for a short, sideways, inside punch which often lands on an opponent’s jaw. Left hooks generally come as a surprise because for most people it is much harder to punch with their left arm. So, while boxers may continuously jab, cross, and uppercut, the perfectly placed “left hook” can mean all the difference in a match, and its effects can be devastating. For orthodox or in-fighters the left hook is closer to land on your opponent, and for experienced boxers, the “left hook” is no random move. Successful boxers study their opponent, their moves and patterns; through deliberate and practiced blows they know when and how to throw the perfectly timed “left hook.”

Much like the football team that continuously runs the ball up the middle and passes only on occasion, the perfectly timed hook can surprise the most seasoned opponent and keep them off guard. Outside the ring, the term “left hook” has become a metaphor for a shocking and evasive move against an opponent.

One of history’s first large scale “left hooks” took place during the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. The fundamental principles of that ancient conflict can be seen in World Wars I and II, and even Desert Storm: all these “left hooks” share the common principles of surprise, shock, timing, overwhelming force, precision, and deception; they are military envelopments with strategic implications.

Are the principles of the “left hook” timeless?

Hannibal Barca

Hannibal’s actions at the Battle of Cannae during the 2nd Punic War in 216 B.C. created the gospel of strategic envelopment. Hannibal’s successes were catastrophic for the Romans, and the repercussions of his actions were felt for centuries. Before the battle, Hannibal had concluded a multi-year journey from Carthage (in northern Africa) through modern-day Spain, southern France, and into the Apennine peninsula from the north. Hannibal had led 50,000 foot soldiers, 9,000 cavalry, and 37 war elephants across the Pyrennees and the Alps. The movement of his entire army was itself acontinental envelopment.

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5 LESSONS ON WAR FROM MY DESERT SHIELD/STORM

By James Holmes

 

According to navy lore, a sea story starts with “there I was” — and everything that follows is a falsehood. So there I was, 25 years ago today, staring out across the vast Atlantic as a gunnery officer in the battleship USS Wisconsin. Destination: Persian Gulf. Herewith, five takeaways from Operations Desert Shield and Storm a quarter-century hence.

In war, the outcome is never final. Upon Wisconsin’s homecoming in 1991, I remember hazarding my very first political prognostication: that it was great to be back from the first Gulf War. War is negotiation in a real sense. The defeated must agree that they’ve been defeated for the postwar order to prove durable. Otherwise the losers can try to overturn the outcome. They can resume the fight later by military means, after they’ve regenerated combat strength. Or they can deploy political measures to isolate the victors, degrade or splinter hostile coalitions, and otherwise shift the balance of power in their favor. They can nullify the verdict of arms.

Saddam Hussein was the quintessential refusenik. He defied a series of United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolutions, spent most of the 1990s taking potshots at allied warplanes policing no-fly and no-drive zones in northern and southern Iraq, and deftly divided the permanent five Security Council members among themselves. By 2003, an Anglo-American caucus stood firm on sanctions enforcement while a loose consortium among France, Russia, and China took a softer line. Schwarzkopf was right: Saddam was a slipshod military strategist. But he played a weak diplomatic hand shrewdly. Give the devil his due.

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