On August 2, 1990, at 2 a.m. Baghdad time, the Kuwaiti people were sleeping, and Iraq suddenly sent 5 divisions of troops to attack Kuwait, and tens of thousands of Kuwaiti people were left unprepared.
At about 7 p.m. local time, Kuwait City, the capital of Kuwait, was lost, and soon the entire territory of Kuwait was occupied by Iraqi forces, followed by the declaration of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein:
Iraq completely annexed Kuwait and designated it as Iraq's "19th Governorate."
The countries of the world condemned Iraq's aggression one after another, and the United Nations issued an ultimatum to the Iraqi government: before 15 January 1991, if Iraq did not withdraw its troops from Kuwait, the States Members of the United Nations could take all necessary measures.
Gulf War
In response to the United Nations warning, Iraq has taken a series of more shameless measures: the permanent abolition of the Amir regime;
On August 7, then-U.S. President George W. Bush formally signed an order that the United States would implement a military program code-named "Desert Shield" against Iraq. On the same day, American troops marched to the battlefield. Soon, France, Germany, Britain, Spain and other countries sent troops one after another, and the joint forces quickly assembled.
Bush
Saddam Hussein was immersed in the joy of occupying Kuwait, and he scoffed at the United Nations warning of a January 15 withdrawal, but what Saddam hussein did not expect was that his self-righteousness had brought a devastating disaster to Iraq.
On January 17, 1991, the U.S.-led multinational force began to bomb Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, and the Gulf War officially broke out. Saddam's confident Iraqi army lasted only 42 days under attack by UN forces. In this short war, iraqi troops suffered more than 100,000 casualties, and Iraq's domestic economic losses reached more than $200 billion, while the U.S. military suffered less than 200 casualties and lost only more than 50 aircraft.
Saddam Hussein
The performance of the United States in the Gulf War has taught the world a lesson, and it has greatly subverted the understanding of traditional warfare by the armed forces of various countries. It is also after this war that countries around the world have begun to carry out military changes, which has made China's military strength awaken rapidly.
Why did Iraq suddenly invade Kuwait that year? How did the United States behave differently from the traditional model of warfare in the Gulf War? What impact has this war had on the military development of our country?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > a variety of factors, Iraq rushed to war</h1>
As one of the world's major oil exporters, Kuwait and the United States have always had very close relations, which is something that the whole world knows, but why does the Iraqi government still want to invade Kuwait? Aren't you afraid of retaliation from the United States? This also begins with the short "honeymoon period" between the United States and Iraq.
In 1980, the Iran-Iraq War broke out, and in order to curb Iran's development, the United States began to provide assistance to Iraq. The United States not only removed Iraq from the list of countries that "support terrorism," but also sold a large amount of weapons and equipment to Iraq at low prices, and there were even rumors that the CIA provided tactical support to the Iraqi army.
I thought that the Iran-Iraq war would end in a short period of time, but what the Iraqi government did not expect was that the war lasted for 8 years. The ongoing war attrition made it difficult for Iraq to afford, and in desperation, Iraq had to borrow foreign debt from other Arab countries, and at the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq had incurred a huge amount of debt, including as much as $14 billion to Kuwait.
Iran-Iraq war
In order to repay the debt as soon as possible, the Iraqi government hoped to unite with other oil-exporting countries to reduce oil production and then raise the price of oil, so as to obtain huge profits, but it did not expect that Kuwait deliberately increased oil production at this time, resulting in oil prices not rising but falling, which made the Iraqi government extremely dissatisfied with Kuwait. But what Kuwait never expected was that their move almost brought disaster to Kuwait.
In addition to economic disputes, Iraq and Kuwait also have disputes over border issues, the biggest of which is the Rumaila oil field. The oil field was located between Iraq and Kuwait, and it was reasonable for the two countries to make a reasonable distribution of the oil field, but the Iraqi government believed that during the Iran-Iraq war, Kuwait took the opportunity to secretly exploit oil, causing damage to Iraq's interests, so Iraq threatened to let Kuwait compensate, but in the end it was rejected by Kuwait.
Of course, the reason why Iraq invaded Kuwait was mainly related to Saddam Hussein, Iraq's "devil's president". Since coming to power in 1979, Saddam Hussein has been bent on becoming the unifier of the entire Arab nation, but the war and armament expenditures have aggravated the economic crisis in Iraq, so Saddam Hussein has the idea of occupying Kuwait.
War in Kuwait
Saddam Hussein believes that if Iraq annexes Kuwait, it will not only alleviate the problem of Iraq's treasury emptiness, but also act as a deterrent to the surrounding Gulf states.
Of course, Saddam Hussein must have considered the possibility of US intervention before preparing to invade Kuwait, but at that time Saddam Hussein believed that Iraq's mechanized force construction had reached the top level in the world and had the strength to compete with the US military, but Saddam Hussein finally misjudged the attitude of the US military and underestimated the speed of military development of the United States since World War II.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" > subvert the traditional war model, the Performance of the United States in the Gulf War</h1>
Before the invasion of Kuwait, Saddam Hussein was ready to compete with the United States, and Saddam hussein was very confident that Iraq had the most powerful military force in the Middle East, of course, this was not Saddam's arrogance, because Iraq had millions of troops, nearly 4,000 tanks and more than 1,400 armored vehicles, but saddam Hussein did not expect that as soon as the war broke out, the Iraqi forces quickly fell into a situation of being completely suppressed.
On January 16, 1991, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time, then-US President George W. Bush formally issued instructions to U.S. Commander Schwarzkopf to order U.S. troops to go to war in Iraq.
Schwarzkopf
At 3 a.m. in Baghdad on January 17, the war code-named "Desert Storm" officially began, and from that day until February 23, the US-led multinational force dispatched 112,000 aircraft and dropped more than 100,000 tons of bombs on the Iraqi army, while the US warships fired 288 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraq.
The air battle in the Gulf War lasted 38 days, and U.S. aircraft and ships remained out of range of the Iraqi army's radar detection, but they were able to deal a fatal blow to Iraqi forces and home-grown facilities.
On 22 February, Iraq announced that the withdrawal of iraqi forces from Kuwait began one day after the ceasefire and that Iraqi forces had pledged to withdraw completely from Kuwait within 21 days. Iraq's withdrawal, however, was rejected by the United States.
At 4:00 a.m. on February 24, the U.S.-led multinational force officially launched a ground attack on the Iraqi army, and in just 2 days, the Iraqi army in Kuwait was completely surrounded and forced to order the Iraqi forces to retreat to Iraq.
On the morning of February 28, in just 42 days, the U.S.-led multinational force completely destroyed Iraqi forces, and in this war, the multinational coalition casualties were less than 1,000, while the number of Iraqi casualties exceeded 100,000, and the number of captured soldiers was even more numerous.
The key to the end of the Gulf War in such a short period of time lies in the new type of war model adopted by the US military on the battlefield, which has three characteristics that completely breaks the traditional war model:
First, system confrontation. Unlike the large corps operations of the previous mechanized war era, the US military used the "integrated system" to counter the "numerical system" of the Iraqi army in the Gulf War. Unlike the heavy weapons and equipment such as tanks and armored vehicles that the Iraqi army relies on, the United States is good at distributing all the power in its hands, and the US military can always quickly inflict devastating blows on the Iraqi army in the form of precision strikes.
Second, joint action. Before the Gulf War began, the multinational coalition had made it clear that all command of the troops would be handed over to the commander of the US forces in the Gulf, Schwarzkopf. In addition, the US military has also completely broken the previous combat formation method of division-based units, but according to different tasks, increase the corresponding branches of the service to form a task force.
Any U.S. soldier may belong to a different team during the mission, which allows the troops to exert their maximum combat advantage. In addition, the US military also used the theater C31 system for the first time in the Gulf War, which greatly increased the efficiency of coordinated operations between various units, and only needed an order from Schwarzkopf, all branches of the multinational coalition army could respond in time, which greatly enhanced the attack capability of the troops on the battlefield.
Third, information confrontation. In previous battles, the forces of various countries have been committed to controlling land, air and sea, and the Iraqi army in the Gulf War has done the same, but it has been found that the information power of the US military has completely exceeded all previous battlefield control.
After the battle began, the US military, relying on the right of information in its possession, quickly used guided missiles to accurately destroy a large number of important industries and military facilities in Iraq, but the amount of ammunition consumed was minimal. At the same time, the United States also relied on its information on Iraq to destroy more than half of the enemy targets on the battlefield with only a few stealth fighters.
Saddam Did have countless tanks and armored vehicles, but under American artillery fire, these mechanized units all became targets with nowhere to hide. Less than a week after the Gulf War began, the Iraqi army's defense system and control system were all destroyed by the US military.
The performance of the US military in the Gulf War has made the countries of the world completely aware that the direction of modern warfare has changed from mechanized confrontation to information confrontation. This is only a few short decades of innovation, and the future battlefield situation will continue to change.
If we do not respond to changes and seek changes in time, once the war starts, no matter how many troops are doomed to become cannon fodder on the battlefield. Under such a rapidly changing war situation, the countries of the world have made changes, and the fourth military reform of the countries of the world has officially begun.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" > military theoretical innovation accelerated, and the gap between China and the United States gradually narrowed</h1>
In 1999, the Kosovo War broke out, and the United States once again showed the world the strength of the joint operations system, and the United States quickly controlled the entire battlefield situation with an extremely accurate proportion of ammunition use and with the least input.
Kosovo War
Since realizing the key points of combat in the new era, China and Russia were the first to make reforms, in which Russia immediately abolished the formation of combat divisions in the army and allowed fighters to train according to their respective strengths to achieve the purpose of joint formation. The PLA troops of our country have also quickly begun a new type of militarization reform.
Since the beginning of the 21 st century, China's People's Liberation Army has carried out a brand-new reorganization of the Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force, and Armed Police, and has divided the arms of the troops in more detail, so as to ensure that the tasks will be more targeted in the future.
Pla
In terms of command, our army has also promptly set up a joint operations command department of the Central Military Commission to make unified arrangements for the daily training, rest, and performance of tasks of all branches of our army; at the same time, our army has also established joint command structures in various theaters, which are mainly responsible for responding to emergencies in wartime, that is to say, once war breaks out, the command organs can immediately issue the most direct orders to all units and branches of the armed forces, which has greatly improved the reaction speed of the troops.
The relevant departments of the United States have always been very vigilant about a series of military reforms in our country, and they have even tried to take various measures to curb the military innovation of Chinese troops on many occasions, and even tried to block the development of our troops by destroying China's research and development and procurement capabilities.
The United States, which has always occupied the position of "world hegemony", will never allow the military strength of any country in the world to rise rapidly, but in the past 20 years, the military gap between China and the United States has been narrowing, but this does not mean that we already have the strength comparable to that of the United States. However, we firmly believe that we have only spent a few decades to get rid of the state of "millet plus rifle", and China's future military strength will be unlimited.