In 1990, Saddam's Iraqi Army was the 4th largest in the world. He had thousands of armored vehicles and hundreds of thousands of troops. Saddam also had thousands of SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles) and MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense Systems.) This presented a formidable obstacle to any nation who might go up against him.
In August of 1990, Saddam would use his massive army to invade its smaller neighbor, Kuwait. The offensive on Kuwait only lasted two days before the nation was captured. This followed a seven month long Iraqi occupation of the country. The UN gave Saddam a deadline to withdraw from Kuwait, a warning he did not heed. What followed would be a US-led coalition of nations invading Kuwait to attempt to push Saddam's army back into Iraq. This would be the start of the Gulf War.
This post will not focus on ground operations of the Gulf War, but will instead examine Iraqi air defenses and their effectiveness against coalition aircraft. Almost all of Saddam's air defenses were Soviet made systems with little exception. Below are a list of the main AD equipment of the Iraqi Army when the Gulf War broke out.
S-75 Divina: 160
S-125 Neva: 140
9K33 Osa: 50
2K12 Kub: 100+
Strela-1: 400
Strela-10: 192
Roland: 100
Crotale: 5
Aspide: Unknown
Strela MANPADS: Thousands
Most of these AD systems were incredibly old and obsolete even in 1991. The S-75 Divina, for example, was first introduced in 1957. The S-125 is the second oldest, being introduced in 1961. The rest of the soviet systems listed were produced in the 1960s and 1970s. . Being as old as these systems were, they were prone to being jammed by electronic warfare. The strela-1, 2 and 3 were immune to this however, being guided by infrared homing and not radar.
A 1990 Iraqi military parade featuring some air defenses.
S-75 Divina.
S-125 Neva.
Strela-10.
The Gulf War began with a coalition bombing campaign on 16th January, 1991. In 100,000 sorties, 44 coalition aircraft were shot down. Most of the jets and helicopters were lost to MANPADS like the Strela-2 and 3, and one jet was downed by an Iraqi Air Force MiG-25.
Air defense victories against coalition aircraft.
January 17: An F-15 was downed by Anti-air artillery (AAA) and an A-6 Intruder was shot down by an unknown SAM.
January 18: An A-6 was downed by a ZU-23-2, An OV-10 Bronco downed by unknown SAM, and an F-4 Phantom hit by a 23mm round causing it to crash in Saudi Arabia.
January 19: An F-15 was downed by an S-75 Divina, and Two F-16s downed by a Kub and S-125 Neva.
January 21: An F-14 Tomcat was shot down by an S-75 Divina.
January 24: A Harrier jet was downed by MANPADS.
January 31: An AC-130 Spectre was downed by unknown SAM.
February 2: An A-6 was downed by AAA and an A-10 Thunderbolt by MANPADS.
February 9: A Harrier was hit by unknown SAM.
February 15: Two A-10 Thunderbolts were downed by Republican Guard Strela-10s near Kuwait city.
February 19: Another A-10 downed by Strela-1.
February 25: A Harrier Jet was downed by MANPADS, and an OV-10 downed by unknown SAM.
February 27: an F-16 and Harrier were downed by MANPADS, and an A-10 by unknown SAM.
Besides fixed wing aircraft, several helicopters were shot down.
Two UH-60 Black Hawks, one UH-1 Huey, one Kiowa, and one AH-64 Apache.
USAF F-16C shot down by a SAM.
There are three primary reasons Iraqi air defenses did so poorly against Coalition aircraft. First, the equipment was already long obsolete. Second, the crews were poorly trained and even more poorly motivated. Third, electronic warfare interfered with what little effectiveness the outdated systems had left.
That being considered, it is still remarkable that a system as old as the S-75 Divina managed to hit anything at all. The only AD systems to truly prove effective in a modern war were MANPADS. MANPADS are limited in effectiveness by one factor, however. MANPADS have a very short range, the Strela-3 only had a flight ceiling of 9,800 feet. This makes it almost useless against jets that usually fly higher than this. An exception is the ground attack A-10 Thunderbolt, which was downed multiple times by MANPADS due to it flying low to strike ground targets.
A deserted Iraqi Strela-1 (left).
A destroyed Kub.
Destroyed Strela-10.
The Invasion of Iraq in 2003 would be a much more controversial war. The US put together a smaller coalition and invaded Iraq without UN approval on false pretenses of chemical weapons. This war would see only a few aircraft shot down by Iraqi SAMs. This is for two primary reasons. Saddam at this point had far fewer air defenses due to his losses in the Gulf war, and the US had more advanced electronic warfare systems to jam what SAMs Saddam had left.
On April 8th, 2003 an A-10 Thunderbolt was shot down by an Iraqi Roland SAM. This is the only fixed winged aircraft confirmed shot down by Saddam's forces during the 2003 war. A couple of AH-64 Apache helicopters and a UH-60 Black Hawk were also shot down.
Roland SAM.
Had the Iraqi Army had more modern air defenses would it have made a deference? Possibly but unlikely, the US air force overwhelmed Iraq with airstrikes, too many for even modern SAMs to effectively counter. Many sorties would still have been conducted and the end result of Iraq pulling out of Kuwait in 1991 and Iraq's defeat in 2003 would have remained unchanged.
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