Sleek, hugely expensive and state of the art; they reek of death all the same. Ahmed Abdel-Halim looks at WMBs, or weapons of massive brutality The ultimate aim of armaments production is to achieve overwhelming technological superiority. This means a constant struggle to widen as far as possible the gap between the producer nation's weapons systems and that of its potential adversaries. In the case of the US, the focus is currently on laser radars, high-precision long-range communications equipment, satellites and space stations, pilotless aircraft, smart bombs and precision guided missiles, super-sensitive surveillance and detection devices, and a new generation of super computers. The new technology has changed the nature of modern warfare. One of its major aims is to maximise long- distance strike capacity, thereby minimising losses to one's own forces. Towards this end, the US has raced to dominate outer space and exploit the possibilities this offers for various military uses. It is working to enhance its precision-strike capacity using such "intelligent" weapons as the roaming AGM-86 missiles that are fired from B-52 H bombers, and by upgrading its intercontinental ballistic missiles. It has developed a Satellites Geosynchronous System (SGS), a type of Global Positioning System (GPS) which uses only three satellites, to identify the location of enemy targets, as well as a highly specialised Geographical Information System (GIS) that gathers and assesses topographical information and transforms this into clear and dynamic maps of potential operation theatres. These two systems are now linked to one another and the information they yield can be rapidly delivered to combatant forces through encoded communications channels. In short, the US has put into place a comprehensive integrated weapons system that had its first trial run in the Gulf War to liberate Kuwait. It was later refined during the operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, before being deployed again in the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. It was primarily in the opening phases of the Iraq war that US-British forces mobilised the latest developments in "information warfare", during the so-called "decapitation" operation. Launched before ground forces were mobilised, the aim of this operation was to paralyse the Iraqi command's control over its armed forces and to prepare the ground for the deployment of the rest of the coalition's high-tech arsenal. In this it may have been successful. But viewed in a longer-term perspective, US military and technological superiority seems to have made them less fit, rather than more, to win the battle for hearts and minds. In advance of the war, US political and military leaders boasted of the precision accuracy of their missiles and guidance systems. Still, they admitted that there would be a certain amount of what they euphemistically term "collateral damage". In the actual heat of battle, however, things went much further. What we have seen is not just the "inevitable" destruction of civilian infrastructures and "some" civilian casualties in the areas adjacent to military targets. Rather, it is clear that US forces were not only lax, if not deliberately negligent, in avoiding civilian targets, but that they engaged in outright carpet bombing, wreaking an enormous human and material toll. Nor have the US forces in Iraq today altered their tactics. As so often in the history of warfare, the powerful arsenal illustrated here has caused much pain and death. However, it has been of little use in accomplishing the coalition's declared objective of building a "new Iraq" which can serve as a model for other nations in the region. Aircraft : Keen to demonstrate their superior air power, coalition forces displayed their full arsenal of aircraft during the war on Iraq. Fighter planes, multi-task fighters and heavy bombers included the F-14 Tomcat, the F-15 Eagle, the F-15 Strike Eagle, the F-16, the F-117 Night Hawk (or "Stealth"), the A-10, the "Gag War" and the Tornado, the B and B-1 long-range bombers, the B-2 stealth bomber and the B-52. Helicopters included the MH-53, AH-64 Apache and MH-53/M "Black Hawk". A host of other aircraft were also used for various purposes: transport (C-5, C-130, HC-130 and the C-17 Globemaster); reconnaissance and early warning (E-3 Sentry Awac, E-d and E-2c Hawk Eye); reconnaissance and electronic warfare (RC-135, MC-130, RC-135 VW and U-2); airborne refuelling (the KC-130); ground surveillance (E-8c Joint Stars); search and rescue operations (HC-130 and HC-130n); and psychological intimidation (AC-130 and Spooky-II). Cluster bombs: Among the "irregular weapons" that were routinely deployed in Iraq were "cluster bombs and munitions". The former are fired from the air and the latter from the ground. Both are designed to fragment into hundreds of "submunitions" or "bomblets" that disperse over large stretches of territory. Most of the bomblets explode when they hit the ground, but anything between 5 and 30 per cent fail to detonate, and remain live. Like landmines, these lethal weapons, euphemistically referred to as "duds", continue to imperil lives of inhabitants for years afterwards. During the war to liberate Kuwait more than 50 million such "bomblets" were released by cluster bombs and related munitions. Even today an average of 200 undetonated "duds" are discovered in Kuwait every month. In Afghanistan, the US dropped 1,227 CBU-87 cluster bombs, each releasing 248,056 bomblets. If only seven per cent of these were "duds", that would still leave a tremendous amount of live explosives littered around the country today. The population of Iraq now faces a similar danger, but of even greater proportions. US and British forces released massive quantities of BLU-97.A/B's, RBL-755s and CBU-105s (fired by American B-52s at the Iraqi tanks defending Baghdad), as well as the full gamut of cluster munitions (such as the M864--M483A1 models). An unquantifiably large number of bomblets from these weapons remain undetonated, and clearing operations have barely begun due to the security situation in the country. Depleted uranium: Depleted uranium (DU) was first used in anti-tank missiles during the war to liberate Kuwait. More formally known as uranium 238, DU is a residue from the enrichment of the uranium 237 used in nuclear reactors. After missiles containing DU detonate, around 70 per cent of the radioactive substance is released into the air, where it is spread by the wind over long distances, creating yet another lasting peril to the health of human beings who come into contact with it. DU was responsible for the so-called Gulf War Syndrome that afflicted many American soldiers after they returned home. Ways of preventing the syndrome have since been developed, leaving the US free to deploy it even more extensively in its war against Iraq. DU is also suspected of being one of the components of another "irregular weapon" deployed by US-British forces -- the bunker buster bomb. The 500-pound GBU-28, for example, is designed to penetrate 6 metres of reinforced concrete or 30 metres of ground before exploding. Napalm : This weapon, which is made of a highly combustible chemical, was first tested in WWII and later used extensively by the US in Vietnam. Although internationally banned, the US and British forces are known to have used napalm in Iraq, wreaking heavy civilian casualties. Conventional heavy weaponry: Ground forces were equipped with M1-A1 tanks, Bradley armoured combat vehicles, and field artillery of various calibres. Electronic weapons: "Information warfare" has become a central component of America's military strength over the past decades. By this term, specialists refer to a wide range of techniques, from those used to produce and sustain intelligence superiority for strategy and operations, to methods of disabling enemy intelligence systems, and technologies that can enhance the effectiveness of their own weaponry. This approach is now integral to the design of command and control networks, strategic surveillance and warning systems, and targeting and guidance systems. It is little wonder, then, that the US should have tailored its current production of military technology accordingly. A whole range of "information" weapons were deployed in Iraq. The most common were malignant computer programmes -- viruses, "logic bombs", and worms -- used to undermine and destroy enemy information systems. A second type of electronic weaponry comes in the form of micro-chips or similar miniaturised circuitry. One such chip was designed to self-destruct when it received a certain signal, and numerous examples of these were discovered in Iraqi weapons and guidance equipment that have made their way onto the international arms market since the fall of Saddam's regime. Another type of chip, known as the "back door", helps decipher the encoded signals used to operate the equipment in which it is implanted. A third type of electronic weapon is the electromagnetic pulse device, which emits powerful electromagnetic pulses capable of destroying the electronic components used in communications equipment and computers. Bombs and missilesAmong the projectiles fired by the coalition's artillery, tanks and aircraft, the following deserve mention: the B61/11 tactical nuclear bomb (which was on hand, but not in fact used); Volume Detonation Weapons (VDW); the Tomahawk Cruise missile; the Patriot anti-missile missile; the Brilliant anti-tank missile; assorted radar guided missiles (the JDAM, JASSAM and CBU-96); and the oxygen absorbing Blu-118B.
