Desert Storm - How to Plan an Air Campaign
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- Опубликовано: 2 фев 2023
- 17th January - 23rd February 1991 - Lt General Chuck Horner, under General Norman Schwarzkopf, commanded a highly successful Air Campaign against what was the 4th largest army in the world. When the Ground Campaign launched on the 24th February, the Iraqi military's ability to fight had been significantly reduced by targeted strikes against key targets, allowing for a swift 100 hour victory to liberate Kuwait.
The root of this success was in the operational planning. In this video, we look at how the Air War of Desert Storm was designed to win.
Bibliography
Clancy, Tom, and Chuck Horner. Every Man a Tiger. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
Hallion, Richard, and Adam Tooby. Desert Storm 1991: The Most Shattering Air Campaign in History. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2022.
Warfare Studies Institute, Air Campaign Planning Handbook. Maxwell: College of Aerospace, Doctrine, Research and Education, 2000.
Michael, Steven B., The Persian Gulf War: An Air Staff Chronology of Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Washington D.C: Centre for Air Force History, 1994.
Cohen, Eliot A., Gulf War Air Power Survey, Vol. 2, Washington D.C: Department of the Air Force, 1993.
JP1-02, Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, Washington D.C: Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2016.
Principal Deputy Under Secretary (Strategy and Resources, Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress, Washington D.C: Department of Defence, 1992.
Warden, John, The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat, Auckland: Pickle Partners Publishing, 2014.
What would you like to see on The Intel Report?
I would love to see a breakdown of the 1944 Battle of Samar on The Intel Report and/or The Operations Room!
It's an incredible story that I've only heard before but think that the visual style of The Operations Room would work well with it. The commanding Japanese Admiral made some unbelievable decisions from our historical hindsight (AP vs HE shells namely). It would make great material to see The Intel Report break down in the context of the war at that point - decision-making, context, and all!
Edit: I wanted to take a moment to say how much this content means and how awesome the team that y'all have is. It is rare enough to find a channel that puts out high quality, historical educational videos on RUclips, but it's even rarer to find one that is *_so_* effective at breaking down an event in such an easy to understand, information packed, visual format. Y'all are truly doing a service to not just this site, but the broader English-speaking world in teaching parts of history that no one would otherwise know or understand! No one can thank you guys enough for it!
Why don't you do a video that goes back into the 1800's. Now that would be fascinating to watch. Any subject would do.
I'd be impressed if not stunned if you could find an instance of the IJA and IJN cooperating in a useful capacity.
@@Scottagram---Actually their was one decent example of that. The evacuation of the Japanese Army from Guadalcanal. Right at the time they realized they lost the battle. It was so well done that it could probably be called "The Japanese Dunkirk."
Any of the medal of honour / victoria cross / other high awards animated with story.
Thanks for the warning on the Sun Tzu quote, I might have been jumpscared if you hadn't taken the precaution.
Thanks to this warning, my eyes were only rolling half way.
Rough timestamp: 5:17 .
Thanks for the thanks about the warning, which still didn't work. TRIGGERED!!!
The sun tzu Quote made me cry
Amazing what happens when you let professionals who have trained for years to do a job actually do their job without trying to micro-manage it to death.
Unlike Biden, who handed military operations to the State Department...
It does help when the terrain is suited for an air campaign and your fighting a conventional uniformed foe who’s main army isn’t in its native land.
It's one of many areas where the US took a long, hard look at the numerous failures during and in response to the Vietnam War, and managed a complete 180-degree shift away from those practices. There are good arguments that we've gone too far in some areas, but it's still much better than the top-down disaster that was the management of Vietnam.
Well, no one's trying to repeat the Vietnam war. That war was fought via politics, hence us losing.
It always helps when you have a president who let's the generals do what they need to do, and believes in his intelligence officers... or at least didn't fake bone spurs, to get out of serving this country.
Considering that projections were for 10,000 US casualties in the first week, and 30,000 after 20 days, I'd say the campaign was an overwhelming success.
And Russia projected a 3 day war and few casualties in Ukraine. Really shows the difference in mentality and ability
Just shows 2 major intelligence failures but only one had terrible consequences…
Always underestimate yourself and overestimate your enemy. America learned this successfully and Russia payed in blood without learning a thing.
@@nihilismpuppet Even with stuff like Operation Bagration in WW2 the Russians suffered heavy casualties. I think the only time where they didn't lose a lot to win was their invasion of Manchuria in 1945.
@@nihilismpuppet definitely wrong…
I went through Top Gun in 1984 and became an adversary instructor at VF-126. Your presentations and analyses are absolutely first rate!
Danger zoneeee
I went to Top Gun too, in the boy scouts Airforce.
I did a lot of the network upgrades at Miramar in the 1990s. I was careful not to make Top Gun references. That was *NOT* easy. Good bunch of Navy folk, though.
holy shit it’s maverick from hit movie top gun
Hearing about Mcnamara and Johnson getting their hands on direct air warfare planning in Vietnam made me roll my eyes. Really gives even more insight to why the war went the way it did.
The air campaign at Desert Storm however was so effective it's almost hard to comprehend. I love this second channel, thanks for more content!
Desert is open plain not like jungle
ruclips.net/video/LtV4kWcPvz0/видео.html&pp=ygURZ3VlcnJpbGxhIHNvY2lldHk%3D
"Do not trust ancient man who sees flying steel birds" Sun Tzu at the battle of Gettysburg, -The Art of the Fellowship of Ice and Fire.
I can’t even imagine the feeling all these US pilots had knowing they’re going to takeoff from their airfields or aircraft carriers going to actual war..
From all accounts I've seen, morale was incredibly high.
@@huntclanhunt9697 maybe they thought that they‘re finally going to see action after the UDSSR downfall and the end of the cold war
At night too
"Their drills are bloodless battles, their battles bloody drills" - Flavius Josephus, historian, on the Roman legions he fought against
The whole point about training is to make the sensation of war more familiar. In latter interviews coalition members described their battles as basically the same as their exercises
I was on the flight line at Shaik Isa Air Base in Bahrain on the night the war began. We launched over 100 fully loaded fighters and bombers (F/A-18, A-6, and RF-4Js). It was the most amazing night ever. It is the most alive I’ve ever felt. We knew we were going to dominate the skies and destroy the enemy completely!
Going back to the beginning on this one! That first video still blows my mind. I'm glad to see the continued success.
I know, right? This channel and its sister channel produce some of the most well put together content on military operations I’ve ever seen! It’s pretty damn good when compared to the largest educational channels too. Almost on a documentary level of quality in my opinion.
I would definitely pay to see a full TV documentary series (maybe something like WW2 in color) if this group chose to make one.
I LOVE your Desert Storm coverage. Literally my favorite videos on RUclips. I’ve watched them all 8-10 times, especially the ones about the air campaign. It sounds like you’re about to drop another amazing series on us…🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Ohhhh shit bro he left a heart! In my mind, it's confirmed...
@@CoreyandCrew I was thinking the same thing! 🤞🏼
America lost the gulf war in four days and failed the basra uprising.
Yea you should be proud. That you guys destroyed a whole nation just cause you think they have nukes
Correction on your map of combatant commands: Israel falls under US European Command, not US Central Command. This is so the combatant commander who is responsible for interacting with Israel is also not the same commander who interacts with the surrounding Arab states. At the time, it was assigned that way because relations between Israel and the Arab world was strained to the point that Arab military leaders would not interact with US military officers who had close working relationships with Israelis.
Interesting.
Animals
So the map is correct for the time. When did it change?
@@adambane1719Who?
Desert Storm… a complete and utter masterpiece of military planning and exectution. Warms my heart as a previous WO.
WO?
@@rhs5683warrant officer I'm assuming
Finally a good tutorial
Planning an air campaign right now and this really broke it down and made it easy for me
@@kylegray3714 same here
@@morisco56 Yup. Definitely using this to help me plan my strikes in CMO.
Dammit, now i have to watch the Desert Storm videos for the 11th time.
Literally just did Yesterday, before this video came out
This is a great illustration of what needs to go into planning for the use of weapons systems. It calls to mind in particular people who are saying reflexively "Why don't we just give Ukraine [fill in the blank]." The massive amount of behind the scenes effort (and note, this doesn't even touch on maintenance, logistics, etc) necessary to employ these systems effectively can't be overlooked.
Exactly all the equipment in the world won’t help Ukraine if we can’t get it to them thank god the us military has one of the best logistics in the world don’t believe look on a map where Afghanistan and Iraq are oh and Japan and Vietnam
I got to listen to/meet General Deptula, the US Air Force General who devised the Gulf War air campaign. He has an incredible mind for military strategy, and this was back in April of 2022, right after the Russian invasion. Someone asked him what he thought of the invasion, and he predicted the war will grind to a stalemate, unless the west supplies Ukraine with integrated air defense and aircraft. It seems his predictions have been completely spot on since.
The Gulf War.
Though now I want to see the Golf War.
@@diestormlie auto correct 🤬🤬
@@diestormlieso you want to see a war in the Scottish highlands and Florida?
Deptula certainly made significant contributions as part of Warner's initial staff. Guys like Buster Gloson and Larry Henry did the lion's share of the work of the initial planning/strategy of dismantling the KARI network and opening strikes. Warden's initial Instant Thunder plan was not deemed executable given there were no forces on the ground to stop the Iraqis from coming across the boarder if they went with his recommendation of immediate "air only" approach. Ultimately, this is why Warden was not asked to stay in Saudi Arabia to help lead this effort. His identification of targets were certainly helpful. I believe Deptula was the only one of Warden's team from the initial briefing on August 19 that was asked to stay. Obviously, Deptula went on to become a very successful leader. As the video stated, Horner was not going to run the air campaign from Washington repeating the mistakes of Vietnam. Read "The Generals War" by Gordon and Trainor and General Glosson's book "War With Iraq: Critical Lessons" for insights into how this played out.
@@jthenry8 Awesome, thanks so much for the recommended reading. Definitely going on my list.
Desert Storm is still fascinating to me (I was just a kid when the invasion began) with how well nearly every part of the campaign was executed. I especially love the air war, and how insanely effective it was
Also from Sun Tzu's Art of War:
Chp.3 Offensive Strategy: "The sovereign may do harm to the army under the following 3 circumstances ... The third is by becoming involved in the command structure during military operations without any knowledge of the internal affairs of the army ..."
Combined arms is the name of the game when it comes to modern warfare.
Maybe in the 70s-late 90s combined arms is falling out of fashion due to the rise in cheap disposable drones the effectiveness of man portable anti vehicle weaponry cell phone prevalence and simple economics counter insurgency and decapitating strikes combined with lightning limited offensives is the new eras battlefield as proven in Ukraine the caucuses and Syria in the last decade
Kharkiv and Kherson offensives:
Am I a joke to you?
@@balmorrablue3130 Combined is important. Saying otherwise would be a fatal mistake that would cost thousands of lives in a war. Thank God you're not in charge
@@balmorrablue3130 The add of drones to the mix does not change the fact that what is beign used is an evolution of the combined arms tactics. In fact, we are going to an even more integrated arms that some has called "mosaic war".
@@Dracorex235 uh ignoring the portable manpads and ATGM’s that add so much modularity to a standard infantry platoons capable that Its actively harming integrated warfare? How about the himar and other MLR’s systems that can operate almost entirely independently and can completely severely disrupt ability of a typical force to function ? Or Christ air to ground missile capabilities are so extremely over developed it’s to tue point that integrates air defense systems are designed around missile interceptions as opposed to jet interceptions because Air launched missile can engage at such an extreme range the jets are almost completely unable to be interdicted
It's amazing, just this week I rewatched the whole Desert Storm series on The Operation Room, and now you come out with this! Great timing, and great content as always!
Can you do a video on the Kargil war Air operations by India during 1999 India Pakistan war? That was an unique air campaign with air ops at 18000 ft altitude- it’s named Operation Safed Sagar. It needs more limelight cause it was really something never seen before, or later in any war.
And also the 1965 war
It’s just boring
@@ilviandante2040 To each their own. I find it fascinating.
@@dragonstormdipro1013 Fair
Other than the altitude, what else was so unique about it?
Awesome as always. Glad ur doing all these through all ur challenges. We love them
Always loved learning more about the gulf wars especially the air combat part.
I want a sequel! Your coverage of this topic was fascinating. If you gave not read it already, The War in Iraq by Buster Glosson is amazing. He was one of the main proponents of the aggresive deployments of F117, and his perspective on the air operations is quite unique.
Thanks for circling back to topics you've already covered on the ops room
Another fantastic video, thank you for the entertainment and keep it up!
Here is something very few news outlets or media sources know.
In June/July 1990, the USAF had a training exercise at Hurlbert Air Field in Florida called Blue Flag.
The gyst of the exercise was a wargame to practice the build-up time needed for an invasion of an Arabian country after that country invaded one of its smaller neighbors.
I was a young airman assigned as a driver & assistant to one of the commanders in charge of the exercise. He walked me through the scenario as he rehearsed the briefing for the CiC of the exercise.
The commander I was assigned to was General Charles Horner, and the commander he was briefing was General Norman Schwarzkopf.
In the scenario for Blue Flag, the estimated build-up time to move forces to the Middle East was 8 months. In actuality, it took 6 months. The time to complete the invasion was estimated at 8 months to 1 year with a much higher rate of losses among American personnel. In actuality, it took 3 months to decimate the Iraqi military and liberate Kuwait.
General Horner told me everything that was being practiced in Blue Flag had its roots in the American Expeditionary Force campaign at the Battle of St. Mihiel in 1918 during WWI as it was the first attempt at a combined arms operation, although the participants of the time didn't know what it was they were working on. It only took 70+ years to get it right.
Always love finding new channels with high info & low bs.
The Powell Doctrine was formulated by someone who lived through the failures of Vietnam. Might be a good review for a future video.
Thank you for this video.
I'll be sure to plan my next Air Campaign in guidance of this guide.
Thanks for this, it really brought back some memories.
love these videos man keep it up
Yet another exceptional video, about an incredible military action.
Well done video! Very impressive. Thanks for this great effort.
Excellent presentation thank you
For everyone who has enjoyed this video, I’d highly recommend reading General Chuck Horner’s and Tom Clancy’s ‘Every Man a Tiger’. Written through the lens of General Horner, he speaks on his upbringing in the US Air Force, as well as Operation Desert Storm.
An excellent read!
Outstanding video well done.
Such a great episode 👏
Such a thorough assessment of military planning and logistics.
More vids exactly like this, please. Such as the ground war in Desert Storm
Outstanding piece sir. Would love to see a segment on the logistical portion of Desert Shield and Storm. I was stationed at Rhein Main during both and we had on average 25 C5's alone, not to mention C141's, tankers, C130's you name it, coming through every night during my shift. It was awe inspiring to witness. Downside was waiting for the C9 Nightingale's to show up with the wounded during Desert Storm. Luckily we didn't get very many.
Excellent!
SUPERB CONTENT.
KEEP UP.
Great analysis. Just subbed!
The Intel Report is the absolute greatest supplement to The Operations Room. I'm beginning to feel like I've got that backward. The Operations Room is the greatest supplement to The Intel Report. Either way, they're kick ass channels!
I've watched overviews of the attack, and was so amazed at the level of attention to detail paid to by the planners,, that I watched a breakdown of almost every attack on the forst few days. It was meticulous, especially when comparing to latter conflicts
excellent video, as always!
"we ain't picking targets in goddamn washington" damn right general horner.
Bruh, the end of this video is a cliffhanger. I want more of this!
Excellent follow up video to the desert storm air war vids. From this vid I have realized that detailed planning will only take you so far. mustaches are what move you across the finish line.
thanks for the tutorial, I’m planning on starting my own air campaign
Outstanding video!
Terrific video!
When you saw on the news all the anti-aircraft fire streaming up in the air, they were firing blindly. CV-67 Desert Storm vet, good times.
5:15 thanks for the warning. I was able to hold them in place
Wonderful video
Tbe sheer logistical effort to synchronize tens of thousands of individuals over hundreds of miles, to the second, prioritized targets. Its all somehow so very intimidating and awesome at the same time.
And terrifying. I wouldn’t tobe out in the open when the sky littered with massive USAF fuel air smoke
@@bolobalaman Yes, the Iraqis had no chance to properly defend themselves
0:39 THAT is absolutely amazing folks!
I love these videos
Great video that wouldn’t have been out of place on the main channel
Thanks
Whoever came up with the name "Instant Thunder" was a genius.
Carnation Instant Thunder
I love the modern stuff! It would be cool to see something about Ukraine. Maybe even Operation Odyssey Dawn or Operation Neptune Spear.
Great stuff
I was a jet engine mechanic on the B52G. Diego Garcia...Aug 1990- Mar 1991. Would be great to see mention of the missions flown from there for Desert Shield/Storm.
This reminds me of the first episode in a gulf war series titled, "Inside the Killbox."
Love that one. Michael Ironside narrated it.
Sun Tzu never gets old man, no matter how much it's reused
A++ good video
More please!
I love how a huge fleet of B-52s flew 16,000km nonstop, dropped hundreds of cruise missiles, and just left without being detected across their entire journey.
It really is a logistical flex.
Good video!
Recently read "Airpower Reborn" by John Andreas Olsen, a collection of essays on the concepts of Boyd and Warden. Pretty informative about air strategy then and now. Warden wrote one of the chapters which was interesting.
God Bless the Men and Women who bravely served! God Bless America!
I hate America it’s a criminal country
Hope they'll burn in hell
yes god bless
A common misconception about the iraqi army numbers needs to be clarified:
While it was a large army it was only on paper. Because military units (Brigade and higher) were assigned with regiments of militia called (the people’s army الجيش الشعبي). These unites only given basic infantry training and some were given training on 85mm mortars or SPG-9 (depending on the military unit order) as rear echelon and to cover areas and guard intersections in the rear.
Those “regiments” have no actual combat experience, and even sometimes left their positions without orders out of fear of fighting. This is not my claim, but several Iraqi army commanders & generals pointed this out in interviews (these interviews were done years after 2003 and some of those generals even served in the re-established army and worked with US against terrorists)
So while these militia units were counted within a military formation, the were not a real force that can be used in combat
This is not to take out anything from the incredible feat done by coalition forces, but only to clarify the problem with the iraqi “numbers”
Quality over quantity, I guess...On the other hand, half of the coalition also had no major combat experience and the other half had experience from Vietnam, which was some years before Iraq and a lot of veterans were no longer serving. But the coalition had better training methods and resources.
Calling the MIG-25 Foxbat "formidable" as a fighter is definitely a stretch ;). But otherwise this was such an excellent video. Really incredible to see how well you put together how this was all organized!
Not sure if it's true, but I imagine for planners at the time, it was safer to assume that it could be formidable in the right hands and shouldn't be taken lightly. In hindsight, we know that the Iraqis were hopelessly outmatched in damn near every fashion except in number of troops surrendered.
@@MrHeavy466 you know what they say, there is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent
@@MrHeavy466 Youre correct, think about it from a strategic standpoint. High Value Air Assets (Tankers, AWACS, etc) can be shot down from far away from High/Fast Interceptors like the Mig-25. That can cripple logistics and battle management for any operation.
@@MrHeavy466 As it turned out MiG-25 was the only Iraqi fighter to actually shoot down a Coalition plane, it was a F-18 and the pilot died. Rest of the losses where from anti-aircraft defenses. So in that sense the planners where right not underestimate the MiG.
MiG 25R was a war winning plane in Indian hands in Kargil War
I’ve been waiting either you, Perun, BattleOrder, or LazerPig, to make this video for just under a year now.
TACS/AAGS is complicated right until you see how well it works.
Fibre optice cables setup in 1991.. Wow.
lmao at the Sun Tzu quote disclaimer! The quote itself was actually quite apt though.
13:04 *YESSSS*
I wish my Intel shop had presentations like this
im a subscriber!❤
Putin taking notes 📝
Not well apparently
Better late than never?
His pilots don't got the training to pull off sorties more complicated than 2 jets blowing their load.
Too late, lmao
The importance of having stealth bombers for those early missions cannot be understated. Iraq’s air defenses were quite capable of defending their air space against non-stealth threats. Once the F-117 Knighthawks sufficiently degraded those air defenses, air superiority was achieved, and there was no way back for Saddam.
If Putin is taking notes, he’ll recognize he doesn’t have anything even remotely like the F-117 and therefore has no way of achieving air superiority in Ukraine. Everything that followed is academically interesting but not really relevant for the present conflict.
we were lucky to have men like Schwarzkopf and Horner as leaders.
All planning works when a 10 fights a 3 on the 1-10 scale.
I would love a series on the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the deposing of Sadaam Husein.
@The Intel Report just curious what is your intro from?
Read General Horner's book. A good read.
Storms in the desert
Very well, i will do the War Thunder event for this
The sad thing is that this could not be repeated today...
The air war on Vietnam was a total mess because politicians are always involved. The Airforce and Navy's potential were not maximized during that time because there were too many political restrictions. The USA did learn a lot from their failures in Vietnam!
The F-14 got sidelined in Desert Storm yet its in the thumbnail....lol
And this would be the high point of the US military through history. The good ole days when Milley wasn't in charge.
The first televised Military Fireworks display
Loved the video @The Intel Report! Can't wait for the next video guys! Just Binge watched your videos exploring the Various Facets of the Battle of the Bulge and the Never to be Launched "Operation Eclipse II". Your "Sister Channel's" series on Iwo Jima and The Battle of the Bulge are great for getting some reference when Playing them out on the Tabletop in Miniature.
Eclipse II showed only 2 Things that come to mind. The Fact that Ike and Bradley both Agreed to cancel the operation and let the Soviets have Berlin highlights the age old saying "Politics make strange Bedfellows." The Fact that it was going to be Bigger than Market Garden would likely mean that The Allies would have to Increase Production of Transport Aircraft as well as Pay close Attention to the Weather Conditions in Berlin itself and the Airbases from where the Transport Aircraft and the Gliders would be coming from, as those were the main things that Severely Hampered Operation Market Garden. Market Garden showed that any Airborne Operation on such a large scale as it had would need to have Enough transport Aircraft and Gliders to get the Men and Equipment on the Ground as quick as Possible at once as well as to ensure a Steady Amount of Supplies to come in when needed if things run for longer than anticipated.
As for the Gulf War, We went into Iraq because of Reports of WMD's (Weapons of Mass Destruction) as Testimonies of Iraqi Soldiers going into Hospitals and Killing Babies. Reports that were Likely Faslified as there were no WMD's found and Testmonies that were also Falsified as well as being given by a 15 year old Woman who turned out to be the Daughter of the Ambassador for Kuwait and was nowhere near the Hospitals. @WatchMojo covered than in one of their videos from a while back, along with the Pentagon actually toying with the idea of Development of a "Gay Bomb" even to this day apparently.
Quite!
I clicked on this video so quickly
Lol yeah, relatable
Same
Desert storm was a fucking MASTERPIECE, it was an absolute clobbering, simply because it was planned out so well
5:18 "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles" Sun Tzu, the art of war
Are you quoting the video or trying to argue that he didn't write it correctly word for word? Because I'll remind you it's not an english language source so there is no word perfect quote. It's all just differing translations of the original text.
@@tonymorris4335 I'm not quoting the video or trying to correct it, I just merely wrote the actual quote from the book. And while the language may not be a one to one perfect translation, there is always a more accurate way of writing it, and if I were to guess, the people who translated it probably knew the language enough to do it as accurately as possible.