Theo NBC mot so luc luong dac biet cua Mi da vao lanh tho Iraq tham thinh va chuan bi dia ban cho quan bo do vao. Cuoc chien nay co the xe duoc mang ten "Chien dich Iraq doc lap" -Operation Iraqi Freedom
Sau day la mot vai tin ve chien thuat cua Mi
SWARM TACTICS’
Of the 250,000 U.S. troops arrayed against Iraq, about 130,000 are in Kuwait. That would be the main launching pad for a ground invasion, which would include about 30,000 British troops.
The total force is less than half the 30-nation coalition that drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991 and smaller than the four to five heavy divisions that planners had once sought for the war.
The overall scenario could differ from that of the 1991 Gulf War, when airstrikes were used over five weeks before troops moved in. This time, “swarm tactics” — simultaneous, coordinated attacks by air, conventional forces and commando units, designed to confuse and overrun Iraqi defenders — could be used, instead.
The main Army forces are the 3rd Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne Division, the Army’s only helicopter assault division, both of which are in Kuwait.
With more than 200 tanks, the 3rd Infantry is expected to spearhead the drive to Baghdad. In a sign that soldiers of the so-called Iron Fist division had moved to the brink of battle, troops of A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment were issued their basic loads of live ammunition Monday. Also assembled in northern Kuwait were more than 50,000 U.S. Marines. Some were expected to take part in a dash up the western flank of the Tigris-Euphrates Delta toward Baghdad, while others were to take the southern city of Basra and the strategic Shatt al-Arab waterway, Iraq’s outlet to the Persian Gulf.
AIR ASSAULT
About 1,000 U.S. and British warplanes were arrayed on Iraq’s periphery, and analysts have said they expect as many as 3,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles to be launched in the first 48 hours.
The first planes to penetrate Iraqi airspace may be the Air Force’s radar-evading stealth jets — the F-117B Nighthawk fighter, which led the attacks on Baghdad in 1991, and the bat-winged B-2 bombers.
About the same time, about 30 Navy ships and submarines in the gulf and Red Sea would launch hundreds of satellite-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles in Baghdad and elsewhere.
Anthony Cordesman, a leading expert on Iraq and U.S. military power, predicted a new kind of air war. “It will be designed to paralyze enemy forces rather than destroy them,” he wrote in a recent analysis. Once the shooting starts, he concluded, the Iraqi government “will be gone in days or weeks.”
Another key element of the air campaign would be Navy F/A-18 Hornets and F-14 Tomcats flying from five aircraft carriers — three in the Persian Gulf and two in the eastern Mediterranean. Each carries about 50 strike planes and about two dozen support aircraft.
The Air Force’s fighters and bombers would launch from bases around the gulf, as well as from the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Some could come from Europe. The Marine Corps has dozens of F/A-18 fighters, AV-8B Harrier jets and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters.
The U.S. strategy is predicated on speed — not just in the time it would take ground forces to reach Baghdad, but also in the speed of communications that would enable fighter and bomber pilots, for example, to switch target coordinates in mid-flight.
GROUND STRATEGY
Once under way, the ground assault is designed to be a lightning movement, with M1A1 Abrams tanks, mine-clearing vehicles and other armored forces blasting through dirt berms and across oil-filled trenches on portable bridges laid by combat engineers.
Close air support would come from Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and Marine Corps Harrier jets, among others. “We’ve been practicing ‘the dance’ — the battle rhythm,” said Scott, the commander of a Harrier squadron based on an assault ship offshore, who would not be identified by his last name.
The main axis of attack was expected to involve the Army’s 3rd Infantry and 1st Marine divisions, striking northward on the western side of the Tigris-Euphrates Delta and crossing the Euphrates near Ramadi. From there they would wheel east toward Baghdad and Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown and clan stronghold, which he was likely to defend with a Republican Guard division.
