- In January and February 1991, hundreds of thousands of soldiers in a United States-led coalition expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm.
- In the midst of that campaign, the Delta Force and British SAS went after Iraqi lines to neutralize the Scud missiles that Saddam Hussein hoped would change the course of the war.
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On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army invaded Kuwait, unleashing a crisis that led to the intervention of a huge United States-led coalition.
At the time, Iraq had one of the largest armies in the world, with about 1 million soldiers. To defeat him, the United States knocked on all diplomatic doors in the region and elsewhere, successfully gathering 750,000 soldiers for Operation Desert Storm, which began on January 17, 1991.
As the coalition against him grew, Hussein sought to divide the Babel-style alliance from almost 40 countries, including several Arab nations and Israel, although Israel did not actively participate. By attacking Israel directly, the Iraqi leader hoped to provoke an Israeli response that would break the fragile coalition.
Hussein chose his Scud missile batteries as the instrument of his strategy. The Soviet-made tactical ballistic missile system came in fixed and mobile launchers, which were quite deadly. A Scud hit an American base in Saudi Arabia, killing 28 soldiers.
To stop the Scud threat, the Pentagon did its best: Delta Force, along with its British counterpart, the Special Air Service (SAS).
Skeptical Leadership
Delta operators of A Squadron.
Courtesy photo
Following the invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) proposed several operations to the Pentagon, from rescuing diplomats and US citizens trapped in Kuwait City to direct action operations in Iraq.
“As soon as we heard about the invasion, a lot of ideas came up about how the Unit could respond,” a former Delta operator told Insider.
But one of the biggest obstacles for Delta Force and other US special operations units during Desert Storm was the leadership of conventional military forces.
General Norman Schwarzkopf, a four-star commander of the United States Central Command and chief general of the war, was quite skeptical of the special operations forces and their strategic usefulness in the nation-state war.
In the end, however, Schwarzkopf had to agree with the White House and the Pentagon and allow special operators to join the campaign. It certainly helped that his second-in-command, British general Sir Peter de la Billière, served and commanded the SAS and was director of British special forces during the siege of the Iranian embassy in 1980.
Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and his Delta Force bodyguards. Sgt. Earl Fillmore of 1st class, the operator in the blue shirt, was killed in Mogadishu.
Courtesy photo
“Actually, believe it or not, at one point, Saddam was right on top of the target. Sure, the guys were all willing to do that, but in the end, it came to nothing. We couldn’t locate him. He doesn’t have enough information or needed to perform an operation, “said the former Delta operator. “But looking back, even if there was enough information, the bosses would probably have carried out an air strike.”
“Some of the ideas, like going after Saddam himself, were very bold, but that’s the whole point of brainstorming sessions. You have to think big and explore all the possibilities, no matter how bizarre they may seem,” said the ex – Delta operator to Insider.
“In the end, we established some options, with Scud-hunting being the main one, and A did it, with C mainly doing CP [close protection] for ‘Storming Norman’ “Schwarzkopf, added the former Delta operator, referring to Delta Force Squadrons A and C.
Scud hunting in the desert
A Delta Force vehicle looking for the enemy in the desert.
Courtesy photo
Iraqis knew their business. They would move the mobile Scud launchers at night and lie down during the day, camouflaging the trucks so well that they would blend seamlessly into the desert landscape, making it almost impossible for coalition planes to locate them.
Delta and SAS patrols would be inserted by helicopters and would travel the main supply routes, looking for signs of Scud mobile launchers. Some patrols entered the country in vehicles and others on foot.
Delta operators used a mix of heavily armed Humvees, motorcycles and Pinzgaeur trucks. Affectionately nicknamed “Pig,” a Pinzgaeur could carry various weapons served by the crew, such as the M2 Browning heavy machine gun and the M-240 medium machine gun, and large amounts of feed, water and fuel needed to support the patrols.
However, some Delta patrols were frustrated with mechanical problems – it is difficult to change a tire in the middle of the desert. But the commandos also needed to be cautious about the weather. In one case, a special operations helicopter crashed, killing its crew and three Delta operators.
Military personnel examine a Scud missile shot down by a Patriot MIM-104 missile during Operation Desert Storm, March 26, 1992.
US Department of Defense
There have been several times when SAS and Delta Force patrols have been involved in gunfights with Iraqi forces, either because the patrols were compromised or because they attacked timely targets.
One of those patrols went terribly wrong. Code-named Bravo Two Zero, it consisted of eight SAS soldiers from Squadron B. Their mission was to conduct a special reconnaissance well behind enemy lines in an attempt to locate mobile Scud missiles.
While the team was stopped in a small ravine during the day following their insertion, they were located by Iraqi civilians. There are conflicting reports about what happened next, with some members of the patrol saying that Iraqi mechanized infantry began to invade the area.
Patrol members started to flee and flee towards Syria, but were separated overnight. After a few days of adventure, four SAS soldiers fell into the hands of the Iraqis, three were killed (two by hypothermia, one by enemy fire) and one successfully escaped to Syria.
Weeks of struggle
Delta operators in a lay-up position on a wadi or ravine.
Courtesy photo
During Operation Desert Storm, SAS operators returned to their roots.
The SAS was created during World War II to fight Nazi Germany’s Africa Korps, led by the well-known general Erwin Rommel, in North Africa. Strength bread and butter was long-range reconnaissance and direct-action operations, such as attacks and ambushes, right behind enemy lines.
From advanced operation bases in the middle of the Sahara Desert, SAS soldiers – and some additional special operations units, such as the Long Range Desert Group – used heavily armed trucks and jeeps for a devastating effect, destroying more planes on the ground in all the Royal Air Force did in the theater.
Delta and SAS operators on the field during Desert Storm faced a different type of opponent.
Coalition aircraft guaranteed air superiority from day one, and conventional Iraqi ground forces were quickly subdued. But American and British special operators had a strategic impact on the war, reducing Scud’s launches against Israel by more than 80%.
Desert Storm ended on February 28, 1991, six weeks after it started. Within weeks of starting its hunt for Iraq’s Scuds, Delta and SAS completed their mission.
Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a veteran of the Hellenic Army (National Service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ) and graduated from Johns Hopkins University.