Israeli military sources believe an unspecified number of mobile Iraqi Scud missile launchers may have survived the Persian Gulf war unscathed.
According to the sources, all 30 stationary launchers were wiped out by American and allied bombers before they could fire a single missile.
But Iraq also had 20 to 30 mobile launchers before the war started on Jan. 17, some in the south and some in western Iraq, from where they were used against Israel.
Only 6 percent of the 110,000 allied sorties flown during the war were aimed at the mobile launchers in western Iraq, the sources said.
The 39 Scuds that hit Israel carried conventional high-explosive warheads. The Israeli military sources could not say for certain whether Iraq has or had the capability to fit chemical warheads to its missiles.
With respect to the Iraqi air force, the sources estimate that about 150 reinforced hangars were destroyed by allied bombing during the first week of combat, apparently with their planes inside.
That is why the Iraqis transferred most of their front-line combat aircraft to Iran, the Israelis say. They included Soviet-built Sukhoi-24 bombers and MIG-29 fighters, as well as French-made Mirage 1 fighter-bombers.
The Israeli sources believe the initial transfer was not coordinated with the Iranians. They do not believe Iran will return the planes to Iraq but will rather keep them as partial payment of Iraq’s war debt to Iran.
The Israeli sources singled out British and Canadian air force pilots for praise. They also mentioned American night-fighting capacity and said the aerial successes meant the ground war had been won before it began.
The sources said allied air losses were the lowest in the history of aerial warfare relative to the number of sorties flown.
It was disclosed meanwhile that Rafael, Israel’s weapons research and development conglomerate, and the American Raytheon company, manufacturer of the Patriot anti-missile batteries, cooperated to improve the effectiveness of the Patriots deployed in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey during hostilities.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.