Iraq & Air Power
The Commentator’s View
Sir Timothy Garden
Centre for Defence Studies
King’s College London
Key Issues
• Nature of Media Coverage
• Personal Assessment of the Campaign
• Questions to Answer
Public Information Sources
• Television
• Terrestrial News rise of 84% to 315 min/w
• Cable/Sat News rise of 145% to 289 min/w
• Radio - only 8% increase
• Newspapers - no change
• Internet - only 6% rise
TV & Air Campaign
Although television cameras captured the dramatic
bombardment of downtown Baghdad, Moseley's
aggressive prosecution of the broader air war -- a
campaign that dropped 29,000 bombs and missiles on
thousands of targets in Iraq -- played out largely
behind the scenes. There were several reasons for this:
Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations playing host to
U.S. air crews refused to accept embedded reporters,
who might have conveyed a greater sense of the air
strategy to American audiences; many targets were out
of sight of journalists on the battlefield; and senior
military officials did not discuss their strategy in public.
An Air War of Might, Co-ordination and Risks
Washington Post 26 April 2003
Personal Information Sources
in order of usefulness
• Embedded TV reporters
• Newspaper reporters
• Internet sources
• Pentagon Briefs
• CENTCOM briefs
• UK Government briefs
Points from the Air Campaign
• Where was Shock and Awe?
• Lack of Iraqi air defences
• Flexibility & the ATO
• Precision weapons
• Key targets
• Close Air Support
• Under assessment of importance?
Intelligence
• Strategic failings
• Tactical assessments
• Air Contribution
• 1000 sorties
• 42,000 images
• 2400 hours of SigInt flying
WMD
• Declared war aim
• “Attacks centred on Command & Control”
• Apparent low priority:
• Only 10.7% of air targets
• NBC protection shortfalls
PSY-Ops
• 158 missions
• 31,800,000 leaflets (120,254 TREs)
• Radio & TV broadcasts
• Effectiveness assessment?
Casualties
• 20 a/c lost - 7 to enemy action
• Friendly fire reporting
• Lack of Iraqi casualty numbers
• Cluster munition usage - Air or artillery
• Precision weapons effects
Technology
• Pre war hype
• JDAMs v Storm Shadow & TLAM
• UAVs
• Network Enabled Capability
• Sensor to Shooter times
Ten Questions
• Has the nature of warfare changed?
• Does technology replace troops?
• Can air power now destroy defending armies?
• Are logistics the constraining factor?
• What changes to weapon/platform balance?
• Are Special Forces more important?
• Was the media strategy right?
• Was the intelligence right?
• How important are allies?
• Should nation-building shape the combat phase?
Better Air Power Media
Relations
• Prepare before operation
• Embed reporters with squadrons
• Give operators a freer hand
• Own up to mistakes
• Produce quick deep honest post conflict
reports
• Carry out a full post op air power survey