Marine Corps Cobra gunships would ride shotgun alongside four German helicopters that are on loan to the U.N. Special Commission and waiting in Turkey to begin aerial inspections. The gunships are based on the Peleliu, one of four Marine Corps warships in the gulf. Should additional air cover be needed, the Pentagon could quickly call on the “balanced force” of about 60 warplanes it left in Saudi Arabia after the gulf war, then assemble “combat air patrols” of U.S.-based F-16 fighters. The Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, and its bevy of F-14 fighters are already stationed at the mouth of the gulf.
A “combat package” of U.S. special-forces helicopters and transport aircraft was ready to go last week at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa. The wing of modified Sikorsky helicopters and Hercules transport aircraft was prepared to fly to the gulf at a few hours’ notice. It includes advanced Pave Low special-operations helicopters, Combat Talon transports and Combat Shadow tankers designed to refuel the helicopters. The team was ordered to roll last Thursday, but the Pentagon canceled the plan at the last minute when the Saudis got cold feet.
Some 4,000 members of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division would attack and secure an Iraqi air base. The base would become the main operations center for U.N. inspection teams. Troops also would guard inspectors while they destroy Iraqi weapons facilities.
After more than four months of contingency planning, there’s still a debate over what to hit. Pentagon planners now envision a “purely demonstrative campaign” designed to “give the tree another shake” and see if Saddam topples, as one administration source put it. The aircraft would be the most accurate in the U.S. inventory: F-117A Stealth fighter-bombers and F-111 bombers. Two wings of F-111s deployed to Turkey last week would spearhead the assault. But as Operation Desert Storm proved, no bomb can be as smart as a skilled inspector on the ground. Scrambling the jets will be a last resort.
