In the early hours of Jan. 17, 1991, a dozen USAF MH-53J Pave Low III and US Army AH-64A Apache helicopters raced low across the Iraqi border north of Ar’ar, Saudi Arabia
In the early hours of Jan. 17, 1991, a dozen Air Force Sikorsky MH-53J Pave Low III and Army McDonnell Douglas AH-64A Apache helicopters skimmed low across the Iraqi border north of Ar’ar, Saudi Arabia. It was dangerous low-level flying on a dark, moonless night, with the crews exposed both to any Iraqi forces they might encounter and to the risk of flying into the ground.
As Richard P. Hallion explains in Desert Storm 1991: The Most Shattering Air Campaign in History, the mission, codenamed Operation Eager Anvil, was designed to punch a hole in Iraq’s air defenses by destroying two radar sites before they could detect incoming coalition strike aircraft over western Iraq. The two sites, separated by about a dozen miles, were equipped with a mix of P-12 Spoon Rest, P-15 Flat Face, and P-15M Squat Eye early-warning radars, along with command and communications vans and other systems. Because time on target was fixed at exactly 0238L, precise navigation and timing were essential. That required Pave Low pathfinders, using terrain-following and terrain-avoidance radar, forward-looking infrared imagery, and Global Positioning System satellite navigation, to guide the Apaches to a predetermined reference point near each site.
The helicopters were split into two teams: Red Team struck the western target, codenamed Nevada, while White Team hit the eastern target, California. Each team combined two Pave Low pathfinders from the Air Force’s 20th Special Operations Squadron, led by Lt. Col. Richard L. Comer, with four Apache gunships from the Army’s 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. Richard A. “Dick” Cody. Both commanders led from the front and flew the mission themselves that night.
Careful prewar preparation and demanding joint training helped the attack proceed without incident. To reach their targets at the same time, the two teams crossed the Saudi-Iraq border at slightly different moments, with the first aircraft entering Iraqi airspace at 0212L. White Team flew due north, while Red Team headed north-northwest.
Crews spotted tracers even as they maneuvered around known observation posts. The Pave Lows guided the teams to the predetermined reference point, where door gunners and flight engineers dropped chem-light markers before the big tan-and-brown helicopters turned south toward a holding area. The Apache crews updated their inertial navigation systems, then moved into firing position 90 seconds ahead of schedule.
Perhaps hearing the distant rotors, Iraqi air defenders began extinguishing the lights at the two sites, but it was too late. The Apache gunners activated their targeting lasers. At 0237:50L, Apache pilot Lt. Tom Drew radioed, “Party in ten,” and at precisely 0238L, with the targets a dozen miles apart, the two Apache teams unleashed a volley of carefully aimed Hellfire missiles. After moving closer, they followed with waves of Hydra-70 flechette rockets and bursts of 30mm chain gun fire. Within three minutes, the sites were destroyed, though one Apache took bullet damage to its rotor blades, and at least two SA-7s were launched at a Red Team Pave Low during its egress, both of which it evaded.
Signals intelligence intercepted a frantic call to the An-Nukhayb intercept operations center. Although the transmission cut off abruptly, the Intercept Operations Center clearly relayed it, because gunners in Baghdad soon opened fire wildly and continued for several minutes, until their barrels overheated or they ran out of ammunition.
“It went exactly as planned,” Comer recalled on the twentieth anniversary of Desert Storm. “The mission was a complete success. The Iraqis now had no eyes with which to see across a large portion of their border, and a coalition air armada streamed into the country above our two helicopter formations.”
Desert Storm 1991, The most shattering air campaign in history, is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo by U.S. Air Force and Scene Camera Operator SGT. Brian Cumper / U.S. Army
