To: kvkkc1 who wrote (183443 ) 9/18/2001 9:56:32 PM From: Bilow Read Replies (1) | Respond to Hi kvkkc1; Okay I exaggerate on the speed of counterbattery fire, though it is possible for radar rangers to plot enemy mortar tubes well before the rounds land. Here's some quotes on US counterbattery during the Gulf war. US Technology has improved since then:Iraq's respected long-range artillery that survived the air campaign was ineffective. Denied air surveillance by coalition air superiority, Iraqi artillery units lacked any meaningful targeting capability. Intimidated by continuous air presence, the Iraqis never turned on their counterbattery radars. There is evidence that some Iraqi artillery positions may not have been manned as US units approached. Iraqi fires were described as "erratic" and "completely ineffective". The units that were able to fire were dealt with switftly . US units were able to use counterbattery radars continuosly to silence Iraqi fires with powerful rocket barrages. Fixed in place by destruction of their prime movers, Iraqi artillerymen faced a dilemma: stay and die or abandon the equipment and live. [p. 79] [Multiple rocket launcher] raids. . . . One captured battalion commander stated that his unit fired only once during battle, and within moments , artillery bomblets devastated his position. A third of his soldiers fled the position and left most of his guns destroyed and the rest of his soldiers dead." (Source: Col Robert H. Scales Jr., "Accuracy Defeated Range in Artillery Duel," International Defense Review, May 1991.) [p. 127] au.af.mil ...This equipment vastly surpassed the obsolescent Soviet equipment used by the Iraqis and overturned the age-old assumption that the force fighting on its own territory had an inherent advantage. By seeing the heat signatures of Iraqi tanks and other vehicles on their thermal-imaging scopes before their own appeared on Iraqi scopes, Americans could engage targets in heavy rain, dust storms, and darkness. So, throughout the ground war the Iraqis, on their own familiar territory, were continually subjected to accurate fire in conditions, at distances, and from directions they did not expect.53 army.mil people.delphi.com
