Word: aircrafting
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Iraqi skies were protected by an air force of 800 combat planes and thousands of antiaircraft missiles and artillery pieces. These defenses looked more capable than those of North Vietnam, which ended up destroying hundreds of American aircraft. But Iraq's forces proved far less effective. Only 36 U.S. and allied planes were shot down, though Washington had been expecting to lose as many as 200. After 36 of his aircraft were destroyed in combat, Saddam sent most of his best planes to sanctuary in Iran and grounded the rest of the air force. Allied electronic jamming and antiradiation missiles...
...first air strikes were launched against Iraqi targets, the French, under General Michel Roquejoffre, closed ranks with the other allies, putting themselves under U.S. operational command. Guided by U.S. AWACS aircraft, French pilots flew their Jaguar fighter-bombers on combat missions deep into Iraqi territory, while French ground forces, including Foreign Legion units, committed themselves wholeheartedly to the battle...
...along the border of Kuwait, U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie told President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad that the U.S. had little to say about Arab border disputes and was eager to improve relations with Iraq. That same day in Washington, anxious State Department officials urged the Pentagon to dispatch the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Independence and its battle group, then in the Indian Ocean, to the mouth of the Persian Gulf -- as a signal to Saddam that the U.S. would not sit idly by if Iraq crossed into Kuwait...
...coalition did not give the Iraqis a chance to apply it. Once the air offensive began on Jan. 16, it became obvious that for the first time air power was going to play a decisive role in war. Again Saddam made a misstep: after losing 36 fighters to allied aircraft, fighters he sent aloft, he grounded his 800-plane air force and eventually dispatched 137 of his top-of- the-line combat and transport aircraft to sanctuary in Iran. Allied planes then flew 80,000 sorties virtually unhindered and lost only 36, dramatically fewer than the 200 the coalition command...
...Stealth Bomber. The gulf war has deepened the controversy over what was already the biggest weapons-funding debate in the budget. At $860 million apiece, the B-2 is the most expensive aircraft ever designed. Congress nearly killed the entire program for good last year, but the Pentagon now is seeking more than $4 billion in 1992 to build four...