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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 0005.PDF
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL Quadrant House, The Quadrant, . Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, England FLIGHT TELEPHONE NUMBERS If dialling from oulside the United Kingdom prefix numbers with +4481, For example 081-661 3321 becomes +4481 661 3321 EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: 081-661 3321 EDITORIAL FAX: 081-661 3840 DISPLAY ADVERTISING: 081-661 3315 DISPLAY ADV. FAX: 081-661 8981 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: 081-661 6373 CLASSIFIED ADV. FAX: 081-642 4431 TELEX: 892084 REEDBP G EDITOR Allan Winn 081-661 3882 DEPUTY EDITOR Graham Warwick 081-661 8808 ASSISTANT EDITOR ART AND PRODUCTION Forbes Mutch 081-661 3852 ASSISTANT EDITOR, SPECIAL PROJECTS Tom Hamill 081-661 3096 NEWS EDITOR Andrew Chuter 081-661 3843 OPERATIONS EDITOR Mike Gaines 081-661 8809 TECHNICAL EDITOR Guy Norris 081-661 3835 AIR TRANSPORT EDITOR David Learmount 081-661 3845 REPORTERS Douglas Barrie 081-661 3836 Eric Beech 081-661 3837 Simon Elliott 081-661 3838 Ian Goold 081-661 3834 Alan Postlethwaite 081-661 3839 SUB EDITOR Annabel Goddard 081-661 3848 ART EDITOR Colin Paine 081-661 3850 LAYOUT ARTIST Mike Wells 081-661 3828 TECHNICAL ARTISTS Ira Epton 081-661 8054 Tim Hall 081-661 8047 David Hatchard 081-661 8047 John Marsden 081-661 8054 EUROPEAN EDITOR Julian Moxon (32) 2 657 9689 FAX (32) 2 657 5260 PHOTOGRAPHER (EUR»PE) Mark Wagner 0272 358200 WASHINGTON BUREAU Kieran Daly (202) 547-2624 FAX (202) 547-5338 LOS ANGELES BUREAU John Bailey (714) 760-6618 FAX (714) 760-6619 PHOTOGRAPHER (USA) Craig Schmitman (213) 391 8981 PARIS CORRESPONDENT Gilbert Sedbon (1) 4825 5261 ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT Arie Egozi (3) 9671155 US WEST COAST CORRESPONDENT Norman Lynn (408) 778-0889 FAX (408)778-9976 SPACEFLIGHT CORRESPONDENT Tim Furmss 0237 451 756 FAX 0237 451 600 DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENT SALES MANAGER Clive Richardson 081-661 3315 VICE-PRESIDENT US SALES John Tidy (714) 756-1057 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT SALES 081-661 6373 RECRUITMENT 081-661 6373 ADVERTISEMENT PRODUCTION Howard Mason 081-661 3267 PUBLISHER Gavin Howe 081-661 3675 Fot full advertisement sales information see page 56. SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER A Walden (0444)441212 SUBSCRIPTIONS ENQUIRIES Oaklield House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH,England BACK NUMBERS Limited numbets ol RECENT ISSUES ONLY are available at £2.00/copy (CASH WITH ORDER ONLY) from Flight International, Room L531, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutlon, Surrey SM2 5AS. USA NEWSSTAND SALES ENQUIRIES Worldwide Media Services Inc. (toll-free), 1-800-345-6478 Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation COMMENT Gulf lessons Awar in the Gulf now looks more likely than it ever has. Efforts still continue to initiate talks between the two sides, but to describe those efforts as "best" would be to flatter enormously the attitude of some parties. With a United Nations deadline for Iraq's pull-out from Kuwait less than two weeks away, both sides talk increasingly of the probability of conflict. It is a probability which nobody can relish, and in which nobody should revel. The proximity of the dan ger has, however, served to highlight flaws in the world's preparations to meet such dangers. Despite the mas sive build-up by the countries working to gether under the United Nations ban ner of arms and per sonnel in the Gulf region, it is by no means a racing cer tainty that those forces could inflict a quick and decisive defeat on the Iraqis. The USA, which to all intents and pur poses leads the UN forces, has been told by its own commanders that it will not be fully ready to fight for some weeks — well into February, in fact. That does not mean that the US forces are incapable of fighting until then — just that they would not be as fully capable at the outset of battle as they would prefer. That applies equally to the USA's allies: Britain, for instance, is still in the process of moving significant parts of its helicopter force and armoured brigades to the region. . Given that it is more likely than not that the United Nations forces would strike first (after all, it is their deadline, not Iraq's), the desire of those forces to be fully ready before pressing the button is understandable. Every day of delay, however, endangers the remarkable degree of unity which has been displayed so far by the UN membership. Every day of delay also means another day in which Iraq's forces have been able to prepare for battle, albeit with steadily diminishing resources of fuel and ammunition. The battle plan for which those forces were mobilised envisaged the rapid defeat of a comparatively weak Kuwait, not a prolonged struggle with a massive UN force. Iraq may have had initial surprise on its side, If there must be a war, the UN forces may he placed better militarily for it in six weeks' time. Politically they will never be better-placed than in the run-up to the 15 fanuary deadline" but then had the surprise turned on it by the UN's response, and it has had to organise a change from an offensive to defensive position as a result. Militarily, the UN forces may be better placed in another six weeks' time; politically they will never be better placed than in the run-up to the 15 January deadline. That, ultimately, may be the deciding factor in a decision to fight now rather than later. The improving preparedness of the UN forces will make this a safer decision, but the credit for that im provement must lie partly with the ability of those forces to im provise rather than with their financers and planners. Some Western combat air craft have suddenly acquired radar-absorb ent material; battle field-support helicop ters are now being equipped with defen sive weaponry. Some of these needs must have been foreseen for the equipment to appear so quickly in service: the need for desert clothing for the British Army, for instance, obviously was not. Western forces have long seen the Middle East as a potential area of conflict (and Western nations have long supplied combat equipment to Middle-Eastern users) yet Western equipment taken to the Gulf by Western forces has been found to be acutely vulnerable to sand ingestion. Western planners have been talking increas ingly of military priorities moving from catering for set-piece conflict in Europe to rapid inter vention worldwide, yet the equipment necessary for the first truly international rapid interven tion since peace broke out in Europe is still being embarked from its home bases five months after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Such short-term lapses will not seem so significant if a war happens and (as seems increasingly likely) drags on for weeks or even months^ for by then it will be attrition and resources which count for more than immedi ately available technology. Those lapses will have ritore significance, perhaps, in the happy instance of a war being averted, for it is the lessons learned from this frantic mobilisation which will affect the ultimate outcome of the (inevitable) next one. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 January, 1991 3
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