Foreword: The 1991 Gulf War was the highlight of the US Air Force, in the 38-day air offensive campaign, the US Air Force dispatched a total of 100,000 sorties, projected 9,300 laser-guided bombs and 5,100 "Maverick" air-to-ground missiles, which seriously weakened the combat effectiveness and morale of the Iraqi army, the Iraqi army that lost its fighting spirit was easily defeated in ground operations, the US military was able to kill 148 people at the cost of heavy damage or annihilation of 38 divisions of the Iraqi army, and having air supremacy was once regarded as the development direction of the modern war model. But the U.S. Air Force, which has absolute air supremacy, has wiped out the face of the Gulf War victory in a small Iraqi city.
One: 800 militants defeated 30,000 Iraqi government troops in a few hours in a strange attack on Mosul
On August 19, 2010, the last group of U.S. combat troops left Iraq, officially ending the 7-year military occupation of Iraq, the anti-American al-Qaida branch that has been engaged in anti-American in Iraq began to grow into extremist forces, and after the Syrian Civil War, it entered Syria to capture the city of Raqqa, which has rich oil reserves in Syria, and used this as a base to occupy Fallujah and Hit City in Iraq, and then turned its attention to Mosul, the capital of The Iraqi Nineveh Province, although the population of Mosul is only 750,000 to 1.5 million. It is also the size of a county in China, but it is already the second largest city in Iraq, which is 360 kilometers away from Baghdad, the Tigris River divides the city into east and west from north to south, and is a transportation hub connecting Iraq and Syria, the Mosul-Aleppo railway, the Turkey-Iraq oil pipeline all pass through here, And mosul also has rich oil resources and water sources, and is Iraq's main oil production area and hydroelectric power farm.
On June 4, 2014, 800 militants carrying old AK rifles took two days in pickup trucks to reach the west of Mosul City on June 6, and easily captured the Iraqi checkpoint at 2:30 a.m. As soon as the battle began, the 30,000 Iraqi government troops stationed in Mosul, although in absolute superiority in numbers and weapons, were zero in combat effectiveness like all the puppet armies formed by the United States, and soon collapsed, throwing away their armor and fleeing to more than 100 kilometers from Baghdad. The attack was a "bumper harvest" for the militants, iraqi government forces along the road dropped enough to arm 4 divisions of U.S.-made assault rifles, machine guns, Tao anti-tank missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, how many small arms and light equipment were captured can not be traced, the U.S. government spent $30 billion to train and equip the Iraqi army after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein Most of the heavy equipment was abandoned on the road in this raid.
These included 100 M113 armored vehicles, 40 M1A1 tanks, 52 M198 Elm guns, 2,300 Humvees, and dozens of T-72 tanks and 42 Soviet 130 mm cannons left behind by the former Iraqi Army. With a total value of up to $654 million, the M1A1 main battle tank that was once indomitable in the Gulf War was vulnerable to the battle with pickup trucks, either destroyed or captured, after the collapse of the Iraqi government forces, Iraq's largest Mosul dam also fell into the hands of militants, this dam is a large number of Iraqi large cities, is a trump card to threaten the Iraqi government, the Americans can not sit still, decided to intervene, the US Navy "Bush" aircraft carrier and "Mesavid" amphibious assault ship was ordered to arrive in the Persian Gulf, Deployed within the operational radius of the F/A-18E/F fighter, it is impossible for the carrier to retake the city and can only rely on ground forces.
Two: 100,000 Iraqi government forces fight back against 3,000 militants in Mosul
But the US military ground troops trapped in Afghanistan, can only count on the mud can not support the wall of the Iraqi government army to support the façade, after several months of planning, the United States, Britain, France and other countries sent military advisers to provide training and large-scale military assistance for 100,000 Iraqi troops, stabilized the position, on June 17, 2016, the Iraqi government army after nearly a month of fighting successfully recovered 50 kilometers from Baghdad Fallujah, laid the foundation for the recovery of Mosul, in the early morning of October 17, 2016, the Iraqi prime minister announced the start of a counter-offensive against Mosul, More than 100,000 Iraqi government troops surrounded 3,000 to 4,500 militants in the city of Mosul from four sides, and the three most elite special combat brigades on the Eastern Front, also known as the "Golden Division", with a strength of 18,000 troops, and the weapons and equipment are a replica of the US Rangers.
On 1 November the division took the lead and captured the Gukjali district on the eastern outskirts of Mosul, and by 4 November had captured six more districts, but the main roads that had penetrated into the city of Mosul were ambushed by armed men using muddy and narrow streets, and armed men carrying light weapons were more flexible than the slow and clumsy armored "Humvee" vehicles, using complex tunnels dug in the past two years and 129 days to fight and go, and to launch attacks with car bombs in large quantities. Posing a serious challenge to Iraqi Government forces in the east, the offensive had to be slowed down, with Iraqi military police capturing the town of Hammam Al-Alile, 15 kilometres from Mosul, in the north the Kurdish militia occupying the town of Bahiga, just 13 kilometres from Mosul, and the Shiite militias in the west capturing the town of Taylor Affel, 50 kilometres west of Mosul, cutting off supplie lines to Syria.
By November 23, the Iraqi government forces completed the siege of the city of Mosul, because Mosul is a Sunni place, The Kurdish militia and Shiite militia can not enter the city, the siege of the city can only be carried out by the Iraqi government army's 9th Armored Division and the "Golden Division", the goal is to first retake the eastern city of Mosul, and then cross the Tigris River to attack the densely built West City, the United States, Britain, France, and canada Air Force also provide 2100 air raid support and tactical logistics support for the Iraqi government army, an average of two to three rounds a day, or even six or seven rounds of air raids, But many neighborhoods are still fiercely competing, the war into the glue period, in addition to the most elite "golden division", other Iraqi government forces only after six to ten weeks of training, tactical literacy and equipment is extremely poor, internal corruption is rampant, US military support weapons and ammunition are often taken to resell for money, encountered in the battle either became a live target or fled, in the first 49 days of the battle, the Iraqi government army killed more than 6,000 people, wounded nearly 20,000 people.
Three: Tactics of the militants
The most commonly used "big killer" of the militants is more than 1200 SUVs, pickup trucks, bulldozers, tanker trucks and heavy trucks, these vehicles add steel plates, full of several tons and dozens of tons of explosives, hidden in the streets and alleys of the houses, after discovering the positions set by the Iraqi army, the car rushed into the position at a speed of 80 km / h to explode, the Iraqi army only has a few minutes to react time, all kinds of firearms, small-caliber artillery and RPG rockets are difficult to destroy, even if they can destroy the car at close range. The exploding car is also enough to blow the position into pieces, in order to destroy the roadblock after the Iraqi army, even dispatch two cars converted into bombs at a time, after the first car blew itself up to destroy the barricade, the other accelerated to the position to explode itself, the militants also used a large number of small commercial drones, not only for reconnaissance, but also converted into grenade-carrying "bombers", so that the Iraqi government forces are invincible.
Militants are more using infantry squad guerrilla warfare, the usual tactic of the Iraqi government army is to first fire to induce the militants to return fire, determine the location of the returners and then call for US air fire strikes, the militants are equipped with only light weapons, lack of anti-aircraft weapons, if and the Iraqi government forces face-to-head hard combat obviously no advantage at all, so the militants use the form of small detachments to disperse the operation, generally in groups of six to ten people, familiar with each other, close cooperation, each equipped with assault rifles, machine guns, Bazookas smashed the wall between the houses, attacked the Iraqi soldiers passing by from the houses, and quickly moved to another house before the other side counterattacked, and the militants also learned European and American sniper tactics, with a sniper and an observer forming a sniper team, these sniper teams pose a great threat to the Iraqi soldiers, and can easily slow down the Iraqi army's advance, and countless squads bite the Iraqi army like horse bees, making it invincible and invincible.
Moreover, the militants are not intoxicated with simple street fighting, but also take the initiative to use roadside bombs and attack squads in the urban-rural junction, uncontrolled areas and river valleys to carry out guerrilla warfare at night and fog, and sometimes even abandon the command center and weapons depot to pretend to retreat, luring the Lac security forces into the encirclement, in early December, the 9th Armored Division of the Iraqi Army successfully occupied the peace hospital in the east of the city, because of the very slight resistance, the Iraqi army was paralyzed, as soon as it entered the encirclement, the armed forces sneaked out of hiding. The head-to-head interception of the Iraqi army in the hospital and opened fire violently, killing and wounding nearly 100 people on the spot, destroying 18 to 25 BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles and capturing more than ten Humvees, setting up a large number of false targets to consume the AMmunition of the US Air Force when encountering air raids, or transferring into the city, in addition to ground fortifications, a large number of tunnels were dug underground five to six meters underground, which could not only avoid air raids, but also be used for maneuvering and storing supplies.
Four: 90,000 precision-guided bombs in the Mosul airstrike
The U.S. Navy and Air Force served as air support in the Battle of Mosul, and within two months of the fall of Mosul, the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and allied air forces dispatched 5,060 sorties, but there were not many air raids, including 1,700 aerial refueling sorties, 700 reconnaissance sorties, 436 air strikes (379 U.S. sorties, 57 Allied sorties), and 1,029 projectile bombs and missiles. The air strikes were commanded by Central Command, mainly the 7th Bomber Wing at Udaid Air Base in Qatar, the 1st Fighter Wing at Havra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, the 48th Fighter Wing, the 514th Air Mobility Wing, the 8th Carrier Air Wing, a total of 5 B-1B strategic bombers, 6 F-22 fighters and a large number of F-16C fighters, F-15E fighters, A-10 attack aircraft, F/A-18F fighters, AC-130U gunboat aircraft, U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, Predator and Reaper drones.
The Australian Air Force also dispatched 8 F/A-18F fighter attack aircraft, 1 E-7A early warning aircraft and 1 KC-30A tanker from the 1st Squadron of the 82nd Wing to deploy to minhhand air base in the United Arab Emirates, the French Air Force sent 2 Rafale fighters and 1 Atlantic-2 anti-submarine patrol aircraft from the 3/30 Squadron, the Dutch Air Force sent 8 F-16AM fighters of the 322nd Squadron to Jordan, and the United Kingdom sent 6 Tornado GR4 fighter-bombers. The Belgian Air Force sent 6 F-16AM fighters, the Air Force sent 7 F-16AM fighters, the Canadian Air Force sent 6 CF-18 fighters, 2 CP-140 surveillance aircraft and 1 CC-150 tanker, and the Saudi Air Force, Qatar Air Force, UAE Air Force, Jordanian Air Force and Bahrain Air Force sent 4 F-I5S fighters, 4 F-16E/F fighters, 4 F-16AM fighters, 2 F-16C fighters, 2 Mirage aircraft The 2000-5 fighters entered the war, and the intensity of air raids gradually increased from dozens of sorties per day to more than 300 sorties.
The U.S. military usually relies on satellites, U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and Predator" and "Reaper" unmanned reconnaissance aircraft for reconnaissance, and then determine the target of the strike to send to the air raid fighter, in order to reduce the loss of fighters, air raids are mainly precision-guided munitions, the use rate of precision-guided munitions is as high as 96%, which is ten times the use rate of precision-guided munitions in the Gulf War, these precision-guided munitions include, 113 kg of GBU-39, 227 kg of GBU-38, 454 kg of GBU-32 satellite guided bombs, 227 kg GBU-12 and GBU-49 laser-guided bombs, AGM-65F and AGM-114 air-to-ground missiles, of which satellite-guided bombs are efficient and flexible, do not care after launch, hit accuracy within 13 meters, the most popular among US military pilots, the advantage of laser-guided bombs is that the accuracy can reach 1-2 meters, mainly for B-1B, F-I5E use, AGM-114 air-to-ground missiles are mainly used by unmanned aerial vehicles and helicopter gunships, infrared imaging-guided AGM-65F is mainly for F/ A-18C/E/F carrier-based combat-attack aircraft.
The use of these weapons costs a high cost, with the B-1B strategic bomber costing $57,870 per hour of flight, the F-15E costing $41,921 per hour of flight, the F-22A costing $68,362 per hour of flight, the F/A-18 fighter-attack aircraft costing $22,400 per hour of flight, the F-16C fighter costing $30,357 per hour of flight, and the A-10 attack aircraft costing $17,716 per hour of flight The Predator drone costs $3,697 an hour, the MQ-9A Reaper drone costs $4,762 an hour, a satellite-guided bomb of $25,000, a laser-guided bomb, an average of $10 million a day for airstrikes, the U.S. military dropped a total of 90,000 precision-guided bombs from 2014 to 2016, while the Pentagon procures satellite-guided bombs at least 3,250 and at most 15,000. Two years of air raids consumed all the satellite-guided bombs that the U.S. military had accumulated for ten years, and it was impossible to blow up the three thousand defenders in the city.
The reason why the effect of the air raid is not obvious is that the militants do not have tanks, self-propelled artillery and armored vehicles, the strength of the troops is also the size of the battalion company, most of the mobile tools are civilian vehicles, the gathering and dispersion is very fast, the fight is won, the fight is not won, the fight is not won, the contact is only used, mobile phones, the Internet and even the command troops, the US military can not paralyze its command and communication system and transportation hubs, the US military is difficult to identify unobspirant and erratic targets, it is also difficult to assess the effect of air raids. The bombed buildings and many of the equipment for the militants are only temporarily occupied or captured equipment like a windfall, it is not painful, its living force is the key, but the air raid is difficult to eliminate the militants, the militants have a network of tunnels in all directions, can hide during air raids, after the air raid and then come out, the US military 900 kg GBU-31 drill bomb is also helpless, and finally it is necessary to go to the clearance with infantry, but the United States is reluctant to send ground troops to enter this bloody meat grinder. It can only rely on the Iraqi government forces, which are of poor quality and morale, who have lost more than they have won in the battle, and have suffered huge casualties.
Five: Conclusion
The Battle of Mosul was one of the most tragic urban battles after World War II, both sides had to go through a hard battle in every house and every neighborhood, fortunately the Iraqi government army had a huge superiority in strength, and it took nearly nine months to drive the 3,000 militants out of Mosul, but not all of them were annihilated, and a large number of militants withdrew to Syria, which also proved one thing, the powerful U.S. Air Force was only effective against Iraqi government forces that were good at escaping and surrendering, and had no effect on fighting armies, whether in Vietnam. Afghanistan or Mosul, the US Air Force can not fight the Gulf War, the Chinese army should also learn this lesson, air supremacy is not omnipotent, to capture the city still needs to have one is not afraid of death, the second is not afraid of the spirit of hardship of the PEOPLE's Liberation Army infantry.