An expertly written, illustrated new analysis of the Desert Storm
air campaign fought against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which shattered the
world's fourth-largest army and sixth-largest air force in just 39 days,
and revolutionized the world's ideas about modern air power.
The combat phase of the Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, was 43 days
long. This consisted of a 39-day air campaign followed by a four-day
armoured mechanized assault. Together they shattered what had been the
world's fourth-largest army and sixth-largest air force, and overturned
conventional military assumptions about the effectiveness and value of
air power.
In this book, author Richard P. Hallion, one of the world's foremost
experts on air warfare, explains why Desert Storm was a revolutionary
victory, a war won with no single climatic battle. Instead, victory came
thanks to a rigorously planned campaign, which opened with a devastating
night of attacks that shattered Iraq's advanced air defence system, and
allowed follow-on strikes in the subsequent weeks to savage Iraq's
military infrastructure and troops in the field - largely by destroying
capabilities and equipment, without massive loss of life. When the
Coalition tanks finally rolled into Iraq, to widespread Iraqi
surrenders, it was less an assault than an occupation.
The rapid victory of Desert Storm, which surprised many observers, led
to widespread military reform as the world's advanced militaries saw the
new capabilities of precision air power. The military world that we live
in today reflects, to a large degree, the transformation of military
power heralded by the air campaign of the 1991 Gulf War.
