Newsgroup: it.cultura.storia.militare
Titolo: stanno davvero finendo i cruise?

Qui dice che fra un po' gli alleati in Irak saranno a corto di
Tomahawk...
Riporto quanto segue da un sito russo, ignoro quanto affidabile:
http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news078.htm
War in Iraq - fighting the people 
 
March 25, 2003 
www.iraqwar.ru
The 
IRAQWAR.RU
 analytical center was created recently by a group of
journalists and military experts from Russia to provide accurate and
up-to-date news and analysis of the war against Iraq. The following is
the English translation of the 
IRAQWAR.RU
 report based on the Russian
military intelligence reports.
[ < previous report | next report > ]
March 25, 2003, 1230hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow - As of the morning March
25 the situation on Iraqi fronts remains quiet. Both sides are
actively preparing for future engagements. Exhausted in combat the US
3rd Motorized Infantry Division is now being reinforced with fresh
units from Kuwait (presumably with up to 1 Marine brigade and 1 tank
brigade from the 1st Armored Division (all coming from the coalition
command reserves) and elements of the British 7th Tank Brigade from
the area of Umm Qasr. The troops have a stringent requirement to
regroup and, after conducting additional reconnaissance, to capture
An-Nasiriya within two days.
The Iraqis have reinforced the An-Nasiriya garrison with several
artillery battalions and a large number of anti-tank weapons.
Additionally, the Iraqis are actively deploying landmines along the
approaches to their positions.
However, currently all combat has nearly ceased due to the sand storm
raging over the region. Weather forecasts anticipate the storm's end
by noon of March 26. According to intercepted radio communications the
coalition advance will be tied to the end of the sand storm and is
planned to take place during the night of March 26-27. The coalition
command believes that a night attack will allow its forces to achieve
the element of surprise and to use its advantage in specialized night
fighting equipment.
There have been no reports of any losses resulting from direct combat
in the past 10 hours. However, there is information about two
coalition combat vehicles destroyed by landmines. Three US soldiers
were wounded in one of these incidents.
Positional warfare continues near Basra. The coalition forces in this
area are clearly insufficient for continuing the attack and the main
emphasis is being placed on artillery and aviation. The city is under
constant bombardment but so far this had little impact on the combat
readiness of the Iraqi units. Thus, last night an Iraqi battalion
reinforced with tanks swung around the coalition positions in the area
of Basra airport and attacked the coalition forces in the flanks. As
the result of this attack the US forces have been thrown back 1.5-2
kilometers leaving the airport and the nearby structures in the hands
of the Iraqis. Two APCs and one tank were destroyed in this encounter.
According to radio intelligence at least two US soldiers were killed
and no less than six US soldiers were wounded.
The coalition forces are still unable to completely capture the small
town of Umm Qasr. By the end of yesterday coalition units were
controlling only the strategic roads going through the town, but
fierce fighting continued in the residential districts. At least two
British servicemen were killed by sniper fire in Umm Qasr during the
past 24 hours.
The coalition command is extremely concerned with growing resistance
movement in the rear of the advancing forces. During a meeting at the
coalition command headquarters it was reported that up to 20 Iraqi
reconnaissance units are active behind the coalition rear. The Iraqis
attack lightly armed supply units; they deploy landmines and conduct
reconnaissance. Additionally, captured villages have active armed
resistance that is conducting reconnaissance in the interests of the
Iraqi command and is organizing attacks against coalition troops.
During the past 24 hours more than 30 coalition wheeled and armored
vehicles have been lost to such attacks. Some 7 coalition servicemen
are missing, 3 soldiers are dead and 10 are wounded.
The coalition commander Gen. Tommy Franks ordered his forces to clear
coalition rears from Iraqi diversionary units and partisans in the
shortest possible time. The British side will be responsible for
fulfilling these orders. A unit from the 22nd SAS regiment supported
by the US 1st, 5th and 10th Special Operations Groups will carry out
this operation. Each of these groups has up to 12 units numbering
12-15 troops each. All of these units have some Asian or Arabic
Americans. The groups also have guides and translators from among
local Iraqi collaborators, who went through rapid training at
specialized centers in the Czech Republic and in the UK.
The sand storms turned out to be the main enemy of the American
military equipment. Just the 3rd Motorized Infantry Division had more
than 100 vehicles disabled. This is causing serious concern on the
part of the coalition command. The repair crews are working around the
clock to return all the disabled equipment back into service. The M1A2
Abrams tanks are not known for the their reliable engines as it is,
but in the sand storm conditions multiple breakdowns became a real
problem for the tank crews.
All attempts by the US paratroopers to capture the town of Kirkuk have
yielded no result. The Americans counted on the support of the Kurds
but the latter refused to take a direct part in the attack and
demanded guarantees from the US command that it will prevent a Turkish
invasion. The Turkish themselves are avoiding making any promises.
Additionally, the situation [at Kirkuk] is affected by the lack of
heavy weapons on the part of the US paratroopers. The aviation support
alone is clearly not sufficient. The northern group of forces
commander Marine Brig. Gen. Osman has requested artillery and armored
vehicles.
All indications are that so far the US is unable to form a
combat-capable strike force in this area.
According to satellite reconnaissance it seems likely that the Iraqis
had time to remove the captured Apache Longbow attack helicopter of
the 11th Aviation Regiment. The pieces remaining at the landing site
following a US bombing strike indicate that the bombs hit a crudely
constructed mockup.
Aerial bombardment of Baghdad has so far failed to produce the
expected results. All targets designated before the war have been hit
3 to 7 times, but this had almost no effect on the combat readiness of
the Iraqi army, their air defenses or the command and control
structures.
It seems that during preparation for the war the Iraqis were able to
create new, well-protected communication lines and control centers.
There is plenty of intelligence information indicating that so far the
US electronic reconnaissance was unable to locate and to penetrate the
Iraqi command's communication network, which is an indication of the
network's high technological sophistication.
A particular point of concern for the US command is the huge overuse
of precision-guided munitions and cruise missiles. Already the supply
of heavy cruise missiles like the "Tomahawk" has been reduced by a
third and, at the current rate of use, in three weeks the US will be
left only with the untouchable strategic supply of these missiles. A
similar situation exists with other types of precision-guided
munitions. "The rate of their use is incompatible with the obtained
results. We are literally dropping gold into the mud!" said Gen.
Richard Mayers during a meeting in Pentagon yesterday morning.
[reverse translation from Russian]
The US experts already call this war a "crisis". "It was enough for
the enemy to show a little resistance and some creative thinking as
our technological superiority begun to quickly lose all its meaning.
Our expenses are not justified by the obtained results. The enemy is
using an order of magnitude cheaper weapons to reach the same goals
for which we spend billions on technological whims of the defense
industry!" said Gen. Stanley McCrystal during the same Pentagon
meeting. [reverse translation from Russian]
Since the early morning today the coalition high command and the Joint
Chiefs of Staff are in an online conference joined by the Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld. This meeting immediately follows an earlier
meeting last night at the White House. During the night meeting with
President Bush emergency actions were outlined to resolve the
standstill in Iraq. The existing course of actions is viewed as
"ineffective and leading to a crisis". The Secretary of State Collin
Powell warned that, if the war in Iraq continues for more than a
month, it might lead to unpredictable consequences in international
politics.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Mayers reported
on the proposed actions and corrections to the plan of the operation
in Iraq. George Bush demanded that the military breaks the standstill
in Iraq and within a week achieves significant military progress. A
particular attention, according to Bush, should be paid to finding and
eliminating the top Iraqi political and military leadership. Bush
believes that Saddam Hussein and his closest aides are the cornerstone
of the Iraqi defense.
During today's online meeting at the coalition headquarters Gen.
Franks was criticized for inefficient command of his troops and for
his inability to concentrate available forces on the main tasks.
According to [Russian military] intelligence Pentagon made a decision
to significantly reinforce the coalition. During the next two weeks up
to 50,000 troops and no less than 500 tanks will arrive to the combat
area from the US military bases in Germany and Albania. By the end of
April 120,000 more troops and up to 1,200 additional tanks will be
sent to support the war against Iraq.
A decision was made to change the way aviation is used in this war.
The use of precision-guided munitions will be scaled down and these
weapons will be reserved for attacking only known, confirmed targets.
There will be an increase in the use of conventional high-yield
aviation bombs, volume-detonation bombs and incendiary munitions. The
USAF command is ordered to deliver to airbases used against Iraq a
two-week supply of aviation bombs of 1-tonn caliber and higher as well
as volume-detonation and incendiary bombs. This means that Washington
is resorting to the "scorched earth" tactics and carpet-bombing
campaign.
(source: 
iraqwar.ru
, 03-25-03, translated by Venik)
 
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La libertà è libertà di dire che due più due fa quattro.
Concessa questa libertà, tutte le altre ne seguono.
George Orwell, 1984

 constructed mockup.
Allora gli irakeni hanno davvero il longbow ?
:D
che bello!!1