mixelflick wrote:I often wondered if I was Saddam (prior to GWII), why sit back and wait for it? He and the rest of the world should have known what was coming. The best defense is a good offense, and he would have been wise to get as many SU-24, 25 and Fitters into the air covered by Mig-23, 25's and 29's as possible to strike coalition targets. I'm not saying they wouldn't take losses (probably massive ones), but it beats hiding in shelters that are going to get pulverized or burying your most capable aircraft in the sand. I know Russian birds are built rugged, but geez...
During Desert Storm they thought they were safe. They had a LOT of HASs. The US was taking them out left and right, then for a period of time ran out of BLU-109s. Some of the shelters were VERY hard, and the available LGBs couldn't do much more than clear the weeds off them. "Disturb the rose bushes", as one officer at the time put it at the time. Iraq quickly stuffed as many aircraft as possible into them. Then we got more BLU-109s in theater.
That's why Iraq started flying it's aircraft to Iran. It thought they'd be safe and they'd be able to get them back after the war. When Iran said, "thanks!", Iraq started burying them in the sand. Probably my favorite shot from that time:
IIRC SDB was designed to have as much penetration capability as BLU-109 albeit with less *BOOM* once it got where it was going. (Though once you're inside the shelter it doesn't take much to screw up an airplane.
"There I was. . ."