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 Patriots
& the Iraqi Scuds
The duel between the missiles
in the last Iraqi war.
[Col (Retd) EAS BOKHARI]
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The arithmetic of Iraqi ballistic missiles i.e. the
Scud-Bs and their Iraqi variants makes a somewhat enigmatic
and heavy reading. The short presentation brings out
the relevant open press figures. As it is, since the
opening up of the current US ‘Op Iraqi Freedom’,
there has been reports of four Scud engagements, two
of which have been reported neutralised by US Patriot,
anti-missile missiles, and other two never hit any significant
US asset in Kuwait. Where are the rest of the Iraqi
Scuds requires some investigation, if at all there are
some still left with Iraq for use.
Scud is a somewhat older missile and it had entered
Soviet service in 1950, and its variant known as Scud-B
was purchased by Iraq from the USSR and subsequently
from Libya and North Korea. It is being claimed that
even now North Korea is in the business of modifying
Scuds, and producing their ‘No-Dong’ missile.
Some more of these missiles (Scuds) may have been produced
by Iraq itself by reverse engineering and through other
dubious means ...more
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Air
Defence of Pakistan PART
2
The
PAF’s defensive capability
[IMRAN
SHAH ] |
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In the recent wars, we can see an identical
and regular pattern of air operations starting from
the suppression of air defences and attacks by stealth
bombers and cruise missiles to the final strikes and
bombing. We shall try to analyse these operations.
We shall study both the air defence ground environment
and the role of air force.
My previous article on the same topic was more about
the ground-based air defence whereas this article is
focusing on air defence by air force fighter jets and
hence the main theme is air superiority operations.
Here the main focus still remains the threat faced by
Pakistan due to relentless military build up across
its eastern border.
Air Superiority Operations
Air superiority is the degree of dominance in the battle
by the air forces of one entity over another that permits
the conduct of operations by the former and its related
land, sea and air forces at a given time and place without
prohibitive interference by the opposing air force...more
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