RAF fighters fear unknown, not the fighting

The idea is to allow both RAF and USAF pilots, especially those new to the region, to get a feel of the terrain and take a preview of the ‘cold faces’. ‘Cold faces’ in air force terminology refers to targets identified for air attacks.

The RAF has brought a credible force to Kuwait which includes Tornados, Harriers, transport and tanker aircrafts. It also has the E3D Sentry AWACS, which will be their eye in the sky.

The level of current air operations over Iraq has been scaled up to what it will be like during the actual war. There is intense air force activity in the Iraqi skies with more than 900 take-offs in a day.

Yet, the fear of unknown is troubling the coalition pilots. They are uncertain how the conflict with Iraq will turn out eventually. ‘‘I don’t know if we can be fully prepared for this sort of thing, but we are prepared as much as we can be,’’ says one pilot.

But there are other worries as well. There are some in the RAF who believe that Iraqi Mig-29s could pose serious problems for the coalition ground forces if any one of them slips past the coalition air cordon.

‘‘A good Iraqi Mig-29 fighter, if it gets past our air defences and gets to the coalition forces on the ground, can raise hell,’’ Wing Commander Mike Cairns.

The coalition air force pilots are concerned about how not to allow even one of Saddam’s air force fighters to get past their aerial cordon to attack the coalition forces or its assets. Or even targets in Kuwait.

Another unstated aspect of the forthcoming air war is that the bombers will be dropping bombs — not with a laser guided system but a global positioning satellite (GPS) system — from greater heights than any other war.

Despite the giant leap in weapon technology since the 1991 Gulf War, the coalition pilots are concerned about the perennial dangers of colliding with another aircraft given the scale of air operations and about ‘blue-on-blue’, that of accidentally hitting their own coalition troops. ‘‘We are working very hard to ensure that wouldn’t happen,’’ says another pilot.