The Arabian Gulf., Dec. 17, 1998
chinfo.navy.mil
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Secretary Cohen: Good afternoon.
In a moment Vice Admiral Fry and Rear Admiral Wilson are going to brief you on some of the aspects of our ongoing operation against Iraq, but before they do I'd like to report that the United States and British forces are continuing to attack a wide range of military targets in order to decrease Iraq's ability to threaten its neighbors.
We continue to be satisfied with the results, although the strikes are not yet complete. There have been no American or British casualties. Every military operation obviously poses risks, and this one is no exception, but we are taking every precaution to protect our personnel. This is one of the reasons we're sending additional personnel to the Gulf. I'm very, very proud of the job our combined forces are doing.
Mr. Chairman?
Gen. Shelton: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
I'll be brief so that the Secretary and I can take your questions. And as the Secretary mentioned, the new Director of Operations, Adm. Fry, and our Director of Intelligence, Adm. Tom Wilson, will give you some operational details in just a few moments, which I know all of you have been anxiously waiting for.
I am pleased to report, as Secretary Cohen noted, that once again our aircraft pilots and air crews have returned safely from the missions they conducted last night.
As you know, OPERATION DESERT FOX is a joint operation. It's under the command and control of Gen. Tony Zinni, our Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command based in Tampa, Florida.
In contrast to the first night's actions, which involved primarily naval and Marine strike aircraft and ship-launched Tomahawks, yesterday's strikes were an outstanding example of joint and combined warfare with U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps aircraft joining our British counterparts in coordinated air strikes.
There were more than 200 strike and strike-support sorties flown last night, including the first combat operations of the B-1 bomber.
Most of you saw some large explosions around Baghdad yesterday, and many of you correctly surmised that those were caused by air-launched cruise missiles launched from B-52 aircraft. Navy ships also launched additional Tomahawk missiles at targets in Iraq.
Although I'll not get into the specific numbers and types of cruise missiles launched to date, I can tell you that the total number of air-launched and ship-launched cruise missiles for this operation thus far, now exceed the total number expended during all of OPERATION DESERT STORM.
I don't want to steal Adm. Fry's presentation, but I'll give you a preview of some of the battle damage assessment photos that he and Adm. Wilson will show you in a moment.
This particular photo is one from an air-launched cruise missile, -- correction, from a Tomahawk cruise missile launched from a ship. It is against a missile R&D. It was the fabrication building that is shown right here...you can see the dark area outlined, and the final assembly building, which used to stand right here. You can also see significant damage done to a building over in this area just outside the fabrication.
We, in fact, have had some very good success with our strikes, but not all of them have gone exactly as planned, and later this morning Adm. Wilson will show you some of the good and some that are not quite as good.
Finally, we have for you today some aircraft video of some of the first night's strikes. You may have already seen some of the video of the British Tornadoes in operation. This example that I'll show you now is from the first night, and it's a Navy F-14 Tomcat from the USS ENTERPRISE attacking a critical communications facility with two laser guided bombs.
(Video shown)
A critical communications facility...we'll get you the name and the exact location later.
I know you're anxious to get on with the rest of the operational briefing, now that I hopefully have whetted your appetite for what the results have been thus far so, I'll pause here and the Secretary and I will take your questions before we turn it over to Admirals Fry and Wilson.
Q: Mr. Secretary, can I ask, first of all, can I ask both you gentlemen, has the third round of strikes begun? Have bombing raids, today's bombing raids begun yet?
Also, Mr. Secretary, you said a wide range of military targets continue to be hit, and yet Tariq Aziz said on television today that number one, you had hit the oil refinery in Basrah, and number two, you had hit radio and television facilities. Is that true, and are those military targets?
Secretary Cohen: Radio and television facilities are indeed part of the command and control operations of Saddam Hussein and how he communicates to the Iraqi people as far as his propaganda is concerned, so those were indeed part of our target base.
With respect to the facility in Basrah, that is a very limited attack on a facility that provides for the illegal shipment of oil out of that facility. So that is one of the illegal shipments that he uses at that facility to produce oil in violation of the Security Council resolutions. So that has been in fact...
Q: Has the third round of raids begun? Have bombing raids begun today?
Secretary Cohen: I think I indicated we have ongoing operations.
Q: But Mr. Secretary, if you in fact strike radio and television facilities, doesn't that further serve to isolate Saddam Hussein, and doesn't that in fact serve to destabilize his regime? One thing you said was not a goal in these airstrikes.
Secretary Cohen: We are not seeking to destabilize his regime. We are seeking to prevent him from in any way compromising this operation and from communicating under these circumstances with his other forces that could pose a threat to our pilots that continue to conduct operations.
Q: Excuse me, if I could follow please...
Q: There's a rumor floating around that a ship has been attacked in the Gulf. The oil markets are sky rocketing because of that. Any truth to the rumors that a ship was attacked in the Gulf?
Secretary Cohen: I have no knowledge.
Q:...radio and television communications...
Q: If I could follow up?
Secretary Cohen: Sure.
Q: Radio and television communications, however, are not necessarily used to communicate with his military. He could use that to communicate with his own people. Doesn't that in fact isolate Saddam Hussein and stabilize his regime -- whether that's your goal or not?
Secretary Cohen: Apparently he's still able to communicate
Q: About the air raids. We understand that the air activity in the south of Iraq where there's less defense, now after two days, and two and a half nights, is it possible that the air defenses around Baghdad have been reduced to the point that we can fly it?
And I would secondly then ask you, there's a lot of talk about this being over this weekend. Can you say anything about any time limits?
Secretary Cohen: I would have to answer negative to both questions. I wouldn't want to comment in terms of whether our ability to go into Baghdad or over Baghdad has been increased or diminished; and secondly, I won't comment on the length of the operation.
Q: Mr. Secretary, do you plan daylight raids at all? These have been night raids up to now.
Secretary Cohen: I'm not going to comment on that.
Q: Mr. Secretary, has the impeachment debate underway now affected your operations in any way, or has it affected morale in any way that you can determine?
Secretary Cohen: The Chairman can perhaps address this. I would have to speculate at this point that those people involved in this operation are focused on one thing and that's carrying out the mission. I believe they are intensely and intently focused upon their job. Whatever else is going on at this particular moment is probably of little concern to them until they carry out their mission.
I've indicated before -- I've always believed it's best in a time such as this, when people's lives are at risk, that we have expressions of bipartisan support for our men and women in uniform. We've had that on the part of both the House and the Senate Members. What else is taking place I don't believe will be influencing the men and women as they carry out their tasks. But I think the Chairman is probably in a better position to comment.
Gen. Shelton: Mr. Secretary... I think he gave a great answer to you. I would only add to it that at this time we all fully know and understand who the Commander in Chief is. We are focused on the mission at hand. That goes from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs right out to every man and woman that's in the Persian Gulf at this time, and those throughout our armed forces.
Q: Can you characterize the Iraqi military response? What are they doing or not doing? Any SAM firings? How much AAA? More or less than expected? Are they moving troops around?
General Shelton: As you've seen on television, there's been a tremendous amount of AAA. I am not aware of any SAM firings as of this time. The radars have been relatively quiet up to this point. Our aircraft have enjoyed great success.
Q: Can you tell us about...
Q: How close are you to accomplishing your goal ?
Q:...south of Iraq and who authorized it and what did it say?
General Shelton: The leaflets were in fact authorized here by the National Command Authority. It told those units that were down in the south to stay put, not to threaten their neighbors or threaten the forces, and that they would not be engaged.
Q: How close are you to realization of your goals of this mission and how soon might you wrap it up?
Secretary Cohen: We are not going to indicate what the timeframe of this operation is. We are proceeding according to our plan. It's going reasonably well. We're satisfied with the way in which it's being carried out and executed, and we will have to just take it day by day.
Q: So the leaflet did not try to incite them to leave their units, did not try to incite them to overthrow. It was just stay put and you won't be shot.
Gen. Shelton: We can give you a copy of them right after this, John. It basically said, stay where you are, stay put, do not threaten anyone, and you will not be hit.
Q: Saddam Hussein has talked about that the United States is a coward in terms of reaching out and touching Iraq with this technology. Can you talk about the type of warfare that's underway here, how different it is from what was in the Persian Gulf War?
The use of the B-1 bomber indicates that you've got manned aircraft going over Iraq --
Gen. Shelton: We have a substantial number of manned aircraft. At this time, as I indicated, we've conducted a very large number of air strikes. These are manned aircraft. These are American pilots and British pilots that are in harm's way. They have the appropriate support aircraft with them so that, to provide the maximum protection that we can. But if he wants to talk about a coward, I think probably, people that lie, I think probably, should look in the mirror.
Q: Can you comment...
Q:...strike for...
Secretary Cohen: Let me add one other thing to that. We go back to 1991; you may recall that Saddam Hussein said that was going to be "the mother of all wars". In a very short period of time when our forces were arrayed against his, it did not take long to show where the courage was. So I think for them, at this point, to accuse the United States of being cowards, is really quite an extraordinary...
Q:...said yesterday you'd hit 50 targets, I believe about 50 in the first round or raids. Can you tell us how many total you hit in the second round? Give us some quantitative idea of how many targets you've hit.
General Shelton: We're over 75 targets today, as I speak right now.
Q: Can you tell us what the B-1 mission was?
General Shelton: Not to get into the operational detail. It's an ongoing operation at this time, and I'd prefer not to discuss what it's done thus far or what the future plans are.
Q: General, if you want to reduce his ability to threaten his neighbors, why those forces in the south that are closest to his neighbors, why would you not want to engage them?
Gen. Shelton: Because at this time those are not the forces that we were most concerned about and we were applying our resources against others that we thought were a higher threat than those in the south.
Q: How many...
Q:...look at how many Iraqi...
General Shelton: We do not have a count right now, Jamie, on any casualties.
Q: On terms of the number of targets. You said 75 targets have been hit. What about the success rate of the missiles and bombs that are being fired?
Gen. Shelton: We'll show you some of the success rates today, or some of the successful missions that have been carried out today.
Q: There are reports the Russian military has gone on alert. What do you make about that? Is that accurate? Are you concerned about that?
Gen. Shelton: I saw an initial report through the press that that happened, and I saw another one that said they had not been, so I don't make very much of that at this time.
Q: General Shelton, you've used the word "degrade" to talk about the objective of this operation, but degrade is a relative term. Degrade to what? What's the picture you want to see when the dust finally settles, whenever it does?
Gen. Shelton: We said to degrade his ability to threaten his neighbors and to degrade his WMD capabilities which include delivery systems, his ability to manufacture long range missiles, his facilities that he could possibly use to weaponize chemicals, etc. Degrade means that we want to in whatever period of time we intend to use to carry out this operation, to bring down his capabilities as much as we possibly can. We realize that you can't destroy it in all cases, and certainly when you talk about the chemical and biological systems, you've got a lot of dual use facilities that range from things that manufacture legitimate medicines to milk to you name it -- all types of hospitals. We obviously have not gone out to those types of facilities and...
Q: Do you have any definition of degrade?
Gen. Shelton: ...So you can't destroy it, but you can bring it down.
Q: To what level though, sir?
Gen. Shelton: To the level that... The level will be determined from what your start point is; we know what he had. I think you can see from the R&D facility he has, his ability now to conduct research and development for longer range missiles has been degraded. Has it been destroyed? He's got two plants over there that he could possibly use, so we haven't destroyed his total capability right now, but we certainly have reduced his assets.
Q:...various...
Q: Can the...
Q:...Iraq has been very adept at playing a shell game with their chemical and biological weapons. UNSCOM inspectors would show up at a building and find that everything had been moved. While our sophisticated weaponry is very good at striking buildings, are there any guarantees that what you intend to hit is inside? And do you have any indication that you're being successful at hitting not just buildings, but those things that actually contribute to the production and concealment or distribution of his chemical and biological weapons?
Secretary Cohen: The Chairman has already indicated that we have indeed targeted missile fabrication plants, facilities that make weapons. Those have been hit and those have been destroyed -- in some cases a building completely wiped out; in other cases partially destroyed. Yes, we can target those facilities which can pose a threat to the region and have done so.
With respect to the other part of your question?
Q: The fact that every time UNSCOM would show up at a place, it had been moved.
Secretary Cohen: Well, they would move things, move them out, and also move them back. They will not have some of those facilities to move back into; if they have put things back in place they'll have been destroyed. There's no guarantee that you can hit those items which have been moved. They will not have that facility to go back to.
General Shelton: If I can just add, one of the reasons that we revised our plan back on 15 November so that we could strike within 24 hours was to try to hold down on the amount of movement time allowed, so that in those suspected areas, we would achieve maximum effectiveness.
Thank you.
Press: Thank you very much, sir.
Admiral Wilson: I'm Admiral Wilson, the Director of Intelligence for the Joint Staff. This is Vice Admiral Fry, the Director for Operations. We'll give you a military briefing on the operation to date, how to concentrate on some of the target sets and the battle damage assessment to date, and Admiral Fry will discuss the operations which have been ongoing.
I'd like to start, first of all, so we can get the lights down, with some more gun camera film from the USS ENTERPRISE, a strike which occurred the first night against some of the integrated air defense systems and command and control systems in southern Iraq.
The first one is targeted at a reporting post. It's an early warning site which provides both radar and visual information. There are two GBU-24 laser guided bombs into that facility which is assessed as destroyed.
That's a second view.
Also at Ashueva, the naval missile storage facility where offensive cruise missiles are stored. Also an F-14 with GBU-24 laser guided bombs.
A second view of the same attack.
Q: What's the size of the warhead?
Admiral Wilson: Two thousand pound bomb.
The final one is a radio relay facility which is important for providing secure command and control communications from the south up to the capital and points further north.
This was attacked by a F/A-18 Hornet with a GBU-16 1,000 pound bomb, laser guided.
Q: Was there any AA facilities or any radar turned on or any defenses to any of these...
Admiral Wilson: There was no reported AAA against those particular missions.
Q: Can you give us the geographic name again for the radio relay site?
Admiral Wilson: Al Rumaylah.
Q: This is south of the no-fly zone south of Baghdad?
Admiral Wilson: The gun camera film was taken from targets that were in the southern no-fly zone, that's correct.
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