Yesterday, three "ghosts" sneaked up on a U.S. military base in Iraq
At the beginning of the new year, the Americans stationed in Iraq had a somewhat worrying life. According to the Pakistan News Agency, on January 15, 2022, the US military base in Iraq was attacked again. The Iraqi Ministry of Defence immediately confirmed the news.
Balad Air Base, 40 kilometers north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, covers an area of 25 square kilometers and contains two airstrips and was once the center of operations that the U.S. Air Force spent billions of dollars to build in Iraq. In November 2011, U.S. forces in Iraq partially returned the Balad base to the Iraqi Air Force, which is currently the operating base of the Iraqi Air Force's F-16 fighter group. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. troops in Iraq have "ended their combat missions" at the end of 2021.
But that doesn't mean the U.S. military has completely withdrawn from Iraq, and at least at Balad Air Base, hundreds of U.S. armed personnel, including military personnel and military technicians, remain in the field.
In the Middle East, such attacks have become commonplace. The previous year, pro-Iranian Shiite forces had repeatedly attacked the base with missiles and rockets, causing some casualties.
However, the attack on the 15th was not the same as before. Quoting an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, the attackers "attacked the offices of U.S. weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin at the air base." U.S. and Iraqi forces stationed at the base responded fiercely, but no attackers were caught or any clues were found about the attackers' identities.
With the coverage of the world's major news media, the political influence and attention required by the attackers should be said to have been achieved, and the attack can be described as "perfect".
The F-16 fighter jet used by the Iraqi Air Force is a product of Lockheed Martin, and they have a group of technicians at Ballard Air Base to provide maintenance and logistics services.
This overly detailed description is reminiscent of a vivid picture of a group of bearded guerrillas brandishing an AK-47 storming into the Office of Lockheed Martin, yelling and firing violently, quietly retreating after completing the mission, disappearing into the night darkness...
This is not the case.
It has to be said that this kind of battle scene belonging to the last century seems to be a bit out of step with the times, the Ballard Air Base is heavily fortified, surrounded by defense facilities and barbed wire, and the air power and ground defense of the base itself are enough to deter such "primitive" attackers. Even if there are such outlaw guerrillas, it is estimated that they will launch suicide attacks, and it is difficult to retreat.
So how did the attackers accurately find Lockheed Martin's office in such a large base to launch an attack? How did they dodge the attack of the Americans and withdraw from the battle?
According to the recovery of military experts, the attack was not a blind cat encountering a dead rat, but a bold operation with a well-planned and high-tech means - the attack was carried out by three mysterious "ghosts".
Iraq's defense ministry said the attackers were three drones, including at least one four-axis-driven drone and one fixed-wing drone. The three drones drilled into the U.S. military base and tried to launch an attack.
Their attacks caused no casualties, but the U.S. troops at the base panicked, and the Iraqi air defense forces immediately opened fire to fight back, but failed to shoot down the three "ghosts". The spokesman confirmed that none of the missiles hit the target, suggesting that the U.S. military at Ballard Air Base may have used anti-aircraft missiles to attack the drone, but without success.
Although the US military's anti-aircraft missiles are advanced, they are not designed to deal with such targets.
Considering the size of the drone, this is easy to remind us of a Chinese proverb – an anti-aircraft gun hits a mosquito. Therefore, in front of the US troops armed to the teeth, the three "ghosts" came and went slowly.
Without shooting down the drone, it was impossible to identify the model, and no country or organization declared it responsible for the attack, so the U.S. military had to admit that it could not determine the identity of the attacker. They generally judged that this might have been an attack by a local pro-Iranian Shiite group to commemorate General Soleimani who was killed by the U.S. military and to demonstrate the ability to fight back. Because the specific targets were not targeted, the U.S. military did not announce plans for the next retaliation.
The U.S. military itself is a big user of drones, but it seems that it has not yet tried such a way of playing when using it as the main weapon to attack the other side's well-fortified military bases.
After all, such a thing as sneaking into an air base with a drone is still a means for the weak to wage war against the strong, how does the US military, which has always boasted of being strong, put itself in the position of the "weak", and is its hypothetical enemy an alien? Such tactics are obviously used when teaching opponents to attack themselves!
The problem is that the U.S. military refuses to think about it, but its opponents have made such a plan themselves. The attackers have a high IQ, no longer take the initiative to take responsibility for the attack, only let the world see the results of the attack, it seems more mysterious, they may also deliberately not attack the other side's personnel, so that the US military even wants to list them as terrorists. (Even drones have to be recycled to save money.) ）
It should be said that, despite the political purpose of this attack, from a military point of view, the planning of the attack on the Ballard air base shows a completely new military practice.
For the opposing base that is difficult to access on the ground, the raid of the small fast spirit from the air has also been practiced before.
For example, on 25 November 1987, Palestine Liberation Organization (PA) special operators flew new types of paratroopers across the Lebanese-Israeli border and, by surprise, launched an attack on a heavily guarded Israeli military camp near the border, with fruitful results but half of the team members dying. Such attacks are usually of a death squad nature.
Drones are completely different.
Today's drones, especially fixed-wing drones, have reached surprising ranges. Moreover, they can carry missiles, rockets and other weapons against the enemy, and they already have the ability to attack beyond the horizon under long-range control. In addition, drones can fly both high and ultra-low altitudes, and due to the heavy use of composite materials and the generally small size, it is difficult for radars that were very sensitive to air defense to catch them, let alone attack them. All of this has plunged traditional military powers, such as the United States, into a new kind of "asymmetric war."
Modern drones come in a variety of ways, some at very low cost.
In the face of such a ghostly opponent, especially the other side's large-scale use of such weapons, there is no doubt that even a military power such as the US military will feel a headache. It remains to be seen where the future military fighting method will go.
【End】
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