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Drop ebombs first night Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-09-2003/0001887608&EDATE=http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-09-2003/0001887608&EDATE=
Newsweek: On First Night of War Against Iraq, U.S. Will Drop 'E-Bombs,' Shutting Down Any Electrical Equipment Within Its Range; Tanks, Warplanes, Helicopters Equipped with Minicomputers, Targeting Systems
COLIN POWELL WAR PLAN
In the February 17 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 10): "The War Plan." Newsweek examines Colin Powell's case before the U.N. and looks at the new weapons of war the U.S. has in it arsenal and the strategy for attacking Iraq this time. Also, the plans for occupation in Iraq after a war; the Columbia investigation; the success of Marvel comics on the big screen; lead paint poisoning cases in Rhode Island; Matisse/Picasso show in New York and tips for job hunting in this economy. (PRNewsFoto)[MG]
NEW YORK, NY USA 02/09/2003
Will Draw on Lessons of Afghanistan;
Ground Troops to go in Just After Bombing Starts
NEW YORK, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- On the first night of the war against
Iraq, the United States will detonate "E-bombs" over President Saddam
Hussein's key command-and-control bunkers in and around Baghdad, according to
a report in the current issue of Newsweek about the plans for war. An E-bomb
is a warhead, delivered by a cruise missile, that explodes to emit a
high-energy pulse that, like a bolt of lightning, will fuse any electrical
equipment within range. It has been more than a little temperamental in
testing, and engineers would still like another year to work out the bugs.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgbin/prnh/20030209/NYSU005 )
But if all goes according to plan, on the first night of an attack against
Iraq, lights will blink out, computers will melt down and phones will go
silent. Saddam and his lieutenants will be left shivering in silent darkness,
alone and waiting to die, report Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas and
National Security Correspondent John Barry in the February 17 issue of
Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 10). The desired effect of the first
night's bombing, in the expression commonly used by military planners, is
"shock and awe." The overall goal of the American blitz against Iraq will be
to so stun and demoralize the Iraqi Army that Saddam's forces will quickly
give up. In the first 48 hours of the attack, the U.S. armed forces are
expected to rain some 3,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles on Iraqi air
defenses, command-and-control, WMD sites and "leadership targets," which is to
say they will try to kill Saddam, his sons and their closest followers.
Thomas and Barry report on the high-tech arsenal that the U.S. has for
this gulf war, which will be different from the first gulf war. It may be the
first War of the Information Age. Gulf War I "was the last of the machine-age
wars," says Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, who ran the Army's official history of
the gulf war and, more recently, the Army's study of its future, the "Army
After Next" project. Many of the weapons will look the same: Abrams main
battle tanks, Apache helicopters, F-14, -15, -16, -18 warplanes. But the
helicopters have a new targeting system poised over its rotor shaft, called a
Longbow, that allows the chopper to target 16 enemy tanks at once. The Abrams
has GPS -- Global Positioning System -- which allows every vehicle commander
to know precisely where he is. And the bombs hanging from the warplanes are
JDAMS, equipped with minicomputers and GP systems to steer themselves within,
on average, 10 feet of their targets.
From the outset, America will try to seize the Iraqi airwaves. Having used
the E-bomb to knock out Saddam's ability to communicate with his troops and
the Iraqi people, America will wage a war of psy-ops (psychological
operations), Newsweek reports. The goal is not to massacre Saddam's army.
Saddam's soldiers will be told, in essence: we need you for the new Iraq;
don't die for the old one.
Cajoled by his impatient boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,
Gen. Tommy Franks has adopted a model that draws on the lessons of
Afghanistan. The Taliban's defeat was widely seen as a triumph of Special
Operations: elite Army A-Teams and CIA operators, bearded and sometimes on
horseback, riding to victory.
In Gulf War II, the ground troops are expected to jump off within three or
four days of the first bombs' falling, and some Special Forces will move into
Iraq sooner. The assault will more closely resemble the invasion of Panama in
1989-a sudden, go-for-broke "vertical envelopment" from many directions to
take down the Manuel Noriega regime (it may not bode well that Noriega himself
escaped and evaded a nationwide manhunt for several days).
Saddam is not completely defenseless against American technology. Top
Pentagon officials worry that he will try to jam the GP systems that give
American soldiers such precision. The jamming devices mostly have short
ranges, however, and the transmissions of more powerful ones would instantly
attract American EA-6B Prowler aircraft, which would home in with HARM
missiles.
(Read Newsweek's news releases at
http://www.Newsweek.MSNBC.com. Click "Pressroom.")
SOURCE Newsweek
Web Site: http://www.newsweek.msnbc.com
Photo Notes: NewsCom:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030209/NYSU005 AP
PhotoExpress Network: PRN1 PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or
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