Summary F–14a Tomcat from Uss John F. Kennedy Refueling from Kc–10a Extender. Hardened Shelter at Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait, Hit by Laser- Guided Bombs

Despite the profound impact of airpower on the course and outcome of the Gulf War, its employment has not escaped controversy. The coalition quickly cleared the skies of Iraqi aircraft, neutralized Iraqi medium and high altitude air defenses, brought Iraq’s entire command structure and military under attack, and systematically struck at the Iraqi field army in the Kuwait theater of operations. As a result, the campaign culminated in a brief, overwhelming ground offensive over a demoralized and shattered Iraqi army. Still, there were doubts concerning airpower’s contributions and effectiveness. Controversy arose during the war over the accuracy of official claims regarding the numbers of Iraqi tanks and mobile Scuds destroyed by air attack. After the war there were attempts by airpower enthusiasts to view the bombing as the harbinger of a new era of precision attacks from the air while skeptics argued that bombing had been far less accurate than claimed, overzealous in its pursuit of fleeing Iraqi troops, or wanton in its unnecessary destruction of Iraq’s civil infrastructure. These various claims drew on evidence that came in many forms: the accounts by participants (including pilot reports) and by visitors to Iraq both during and after the war, prisoner of war SURVEYING