U.S., U.K. Tomahawks ‘First Phase’ to Open Libyan Airspace

By Tony Capaccio - Mar 19, 2011 9:01 PM PT

The United States and United Kingdom attacks on Libya’s integrated air-defense systems began a planned multiphase assault to reduce the risks for subsequent overflights by allies’ fighter and surveillance aircraft.

The opening rounds of “Operation Odyssey Dawn” followed the script of major operations since 1991 with the launch of Raytheon Co. (RTN) Tomahawk cruise missiles to clear a path for manned aircraft. Yesterday’s strike involved 110 missiles against 20 targets; in contrast 288 Tomahawks were fired in the opening hours of the 1991 Gulf War.

A major target was Muammar Qaddafi’s SA-5 missiles, which at their longest range of 300 kilometers provide “significant standoff capability,” said a Pentagon statement. Libya also has about 50 SA-6 missiles, the type Bosnian Serbs used to shoot down U.S. Air Force Captain Scott O’Grady’s F-16 in 1995.

Libya’s integrated air defense system, similar to Iraq’s, had about 30 surface-to-air missile sites, linked by 15 early warning radar installations along the Mediterranean coastline. They posed a “significant threat” to foreign warplanes over or near Libyan airspace, according to declassified Pentagon data.

“ Any time you go against an installed air defense system, you have to take it seriously,” Chief of Naval Operations Gary Roughhead said in a recent interview.

Next Phases

The next phases will likely include setting up procedures for quickly rescuing downed pilots, aerial refueling patrols, Global Hawk surveillance drone and RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance flights, electronic jamming EC-130H Compass Call sorties and attacks by Navy EA-6B Prowlers and Air Force F-16CJ radar-killing jets -- all before coalition pilots start flying no-fly zone patrols, said retired military officials.

After air defenses are “suppressed, you can fly more vulnerable aircraft in there,” retired deputy European Command commander Air Force General Charles Wald said in an interview. Wald planned and flew Bosnia no-fly missions in the mid-1990s.

“It’s kind of progressive -- they don’t have the capacity to threaten so you can basically loiter over their country.”

Libya has a limited air force, with about 80 percent of its aircraft “non-operational,” according to the Pentagon. Libyan pilot training levels and air combat tactics “have remained far inferior to those of U.S. pilots and well-trained Middle Eastern pilots,” such as those from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, according to the Pentagon.

Libya’s air force has some advanced aircraft including more than 100 MiG jets, 30 helicopters and 15 transport aircraft, “but much of it is obsolete or inoperable,” the Pentagon said.

110 Missiles

The first strike came from French warplanes against Libyan military vehicles, followed by volleys of U.S. and U.K. missiles.

“My sense is that the coalition will allow a brief pause in coming days to see if Qaddafi steps down,” Cliff Kupchan, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group, a New York political-risk consulting firm, said in an interview.

“If he does not, that will be followed by a much more intensive campaign, implementing what I would call a no-drive zone, in which neither Libyan aircraft nor heavy armaments, tank artillery, would be immune from strike,” Kupchan said.

The strikes will take about six hours to assess, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday.

“The ferocity of these initial strikes is impressive,” said John Nagl, president of the Center for a New American Security and a retired Army lieutenant colonel.

Intense Start

“It’s a fairly intense opening blast. This is not a symbolic use of force. Only the United States has the capability to act against the integrated air defense systems that Libya has,” he said. “Maybe I should say ‘had’ before these strikes.”

U.S. and United Kingdom submarines and surface vessels launched the 110 Raytheon Co. missiles at 20 Libyan air defense targets, Gortney said.

The first of the Global Positioning Satellite-missiles landed on Libyan coastal targets at about 3 p.m. Washington time, kicking off Operation “Odyssey Dawn,” Gortney said.

Destruction of the Libyan missiles, radar and communication “nodes” was “vital to the enforcement of a no-fly zone, since so much of the activity we have seen has been in this part of the country,” he said, in reference to the coastline.

Destroying the SA-5s and key communications “opens up as broad a space as possible for the no-fly zone” and will allow a Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) Global Hawk drone to fly over Libya, Gortney said.

Air Power

Coalition aircraft will “penetrate a medium-to-high threat without putting air-crews at risk,” Gortney said.

Still, if Qaddafi’s ground forces sit in place, “then it gets to be a lot harder,” said Center for Strategic and International Studies analyst Anthony Cordesman.

“The question is, can some combination of the rebels and allied air power drive Qaddafi out of the capability of using his forces, and eventually from power,” he said. “Or will the U.S. have to go from providing these command and control and intelligence assets, and striking at surface-to-air missiles, to a much more direct form of intervention? At this point none of us know.”

The coalition naval forces in the area included about 25 U.S., U.K., Canadian and Italian vessels, including three U.S. submarines. The French are deploying the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the waters off Libya.

France First

The Tomahawk strikes came hours after a French jet “neutralized” a tank, a French Defense Ministry spokesman said. The mission was part of sorties flown by French warplanes including Mirage 2000s and Rafales in Libyan air space yesterday, Defense Ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire said.

Canada will deploy six CF-18 fighter jets, Postmedia News reported, citing people not identified by name.

Norway will contribute as many as six F-16s and one P-3 Orion reconnaissance plane in five to 10 days, officials said. Denmark has sent six F-16s to the U.S. Naval Air Station at Sigonella in Sicily, several of which are likely to be in Libyan airspace Sunday, Danish news agency Ritzau and newspaper Jyllands-Posten said Friday.

Qatar plans to take part, the state-run Qatar News Agency said. The United Arab Emirates is also expected to participate.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net