- RAF Tornados, American F16s and carrier-based F14s and
F18s were used as the strike aircraft in yesterday,s raids.
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- Six Tornado GR1s based in Kuwait dropped Paveway laser-guided
missiles, which can be accurate to within a few yards from an altitude
of up to 35,000ft.
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- In addition to the 24 American and six RAF aircraft that
carried out the attacks, another 50 aircraft were understood to have been
involved in the operation, including one or two RAF Tornado F3s, which
escorted the planes, and two VC10 tankers.
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- Each of the Kuwait-based GR1s, which can fly at 600mph
with a normal payload and arrive over Iraqi targets within minutes, can
carry up to three Paveway missiles. The aircraft is also fitted with two
Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and two 27mm Mauser cannons for defensive
use.
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- GR1 bombers were also involved in an attack on Iraqi
sites near Baghdad at the end of 1998 and the beginning of 1999.
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- During the Gulf War the GR1 was used for some of the
most dangerous missions when it flew at low altitude to bomb runways. The
aircraft were equipped with JP 233 runway denial bombs which scattered
explosive charges designed to make enemy airfields unusable.
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- The aircraft had the highest casualty rate of any warplane.
Six were lost within the first four days. Four crew members were killed
and four were captured.
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- In yesterday,s attack the laser-guided missiles, which
cost £22,000 each, enabled British pilots to fly at higher altitudes
than they could during the Gulf War ten years ago. Low-flying tactics were
blamed for the loss of the six jets.
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- John Nichol, a former Gulf War Tornado navigator, told
Sky News last night that the attack amounted to a "pretty strong message
from Washington. He said that attacks occurred on a daily basis in Iraq
but were often not widely reported. "What is going on here is that
we have a new Administration in America and this is about using the big
stick, as it were.
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- "This is saying there is somebody new on the block
and we are going to deal a little bit more aggressively with outrages in
Iraq, he said.
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- During airstrikes in December 1998, Tornado GR1s used
1,000lb Paveway 2 bombs on raids on concrete command-and-control bunkers.
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- The Tornados, which are currently the subject of a £1billion
upgrade, were flown in pairs, one being equipped with a thermal imaging
airborne laser designator to pinpoint the target.
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- The versatile F16 fighter, which can fly at 1,500 mph,
can perform much tighter turns than RAF Tornados. It is manufactured by
Lockheed Martin and can be armed with Harm and Strike anti-radar missiles.
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- From April 1999 to March last year RAF pilots flew a
total of 2,683 sorties in the no-fly zones, 2,233 of which were in the
southern zone.
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