when the us launched operation desert storm it did so

The first into the target zone were four F-14As led by CDR Bob `Sundance’ Davis, CO VF-32. The action began when USS data Kennedy and USS Saratoga launched a combined operation to strike the Air Defence Operation Centre (ADOC) at al-Wallid AB (H-3), and bomb Sa’ad AB (H-2), early in the morning of Jan. The US Navy’s `delay and disrupt’ fighter doctrine (which taught to all F-14 crews was to stay with the strike package-with fighter bombers, electronic warfare and other aircraft they were supposed to protect-to ‘delay and disrupt’ instead of ‘chasing MiGs’) played a crucial role in the engagement of that morning: although resulting in a literal ‘bunch of soft kills’, but flew no missile exchanges, it can be said that this turned into a major power demonstration for the Tomcat. Farewell to the Tomcat, VF-32 Swordsmen, 2005 This print is available in multiple sizes from – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. Weather and communications-related problems, and the incredible discipline of their crews prevented them from scoring up to a dozen aerial victories, several of which could have been scored on Jan. Instead as explained by Tom Cooper in his book In the Claws of the Tomcat: US Navy F-14 Tomcats in Air Combat against Iran and Iraq, 1987-2000, the reality is entirely different: Tomcats engaged dozens of opponents, often on the verge of the engagement envelope of their powerful AWG- 9 radars and AIM-54 Phoenix long-range air-to-air missiles, and sometimes at such close ranges that their pilots selected ‘guns’. Indeed, the widespread belief is that USN F-14s saw next to no air combat against Iran, and even less so during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. However, the period during which they saw most combat followed several years later, during Operations Earnest Will and then Desert Storm, from 1987 until 1991. The F-14 Tomcats of the US Navy achieved their first aerial victories during freedom of navigation exercises off Libya in 1981. The US Navy F-14 Tomcats won the air battle for H-2 without firing a single shot.

When the us launched operation desert storm it did so