Word: aircrafting
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Actually, the schedule of Operation El Dorado Canyon, as the strikes were code-named by Pentagon planners, was dictated by the military necessity of hitting Libya in the middle of the night. It was just one factor in an enormously complex operation that involved 150 aircraft and resulted in the launching of more than 60 tons of bombs. The outcome was far from perfect: the U.S. lost one F-111 fighter-bomber along with its two-man crew and unintentionally caused some civilian casualties and damage. But El Dorado also produced more than a few nuggets of military gold, including...
...inevitable. The Pentagon brass was concerned, however, that it lacked the firepower to hit Gaddafi with sufficient force. Since the Sixth Fleet's skirmish only three weeks earlier with Libyan forces in the Gulf of Sidra, the fleet's strength had considerably diminished with the departure of the aircraft carrier Saratoga for its home base in Mayport, Fla. There was not sufficient time to order the flattop back to the central Mediterranean to join the carriers Coral Sea and America...
...precision bombing. Furthermore, it would have to be carried out at night, when few people were on the streets. A night raid was also likely to risk fewer fliers than a daylight attack. Taking all these factors into account, Crowe and the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended that additional aircraft would be necessary. The ones most ideally suited to the mission were the Air Force's F-111s at Britain's Royal Air Force Base at Lakenheath. Reason: like the Navy A-6 craft, the F-111s are equipped with infrared bombing sights capable of highly accurate nighttime targeting...
...first aircraft off the ground Monday, at 12:13 p.m. EST, were 28 tankers from Royal Air Force bases in Fairford and Mildenhall. Minutes later a squadron of 24 two-seater khaki-and-brown F-111 attack bombers began streaking off runways at Lakenheath and were joined by five EF-111 electronic jamming planes whose mission was to disable Libyan radar capabilities. Flying at 30,000 ft., the force rendezvoused over southern England and refueled four times during its seven-hour flight through darkened skies. After the first refueling, seven planes, brought along as a reserve in case of airborne...
Meanwhile, the carriers Coral Sea and America, stationed in the midMediterranean, were steaming toward the coast of Libya. Between 5:20 and 6:20 p.m., close to 100 aircraft catapulted off their decks--18 A-6 and A-7 strike and strike-support craft, six F/A-18 fighters, 14 EA-6B electronic jamming planes and a variety of support craft. As the Air Force's F-111 squadron rounded the tip of Tunisia, it was skillfully integrated into the Navy's airborne armada by a single Air Force officer providing coordination from an airborne tanker...