>>27692216>Iraq didn't have a modern air defense networkBaghdad in 1990-91 had one of the densest and most modern anti aircraft nets in the world.
However, the inherent weaknesses of Russian Anti air systems of the time were exploited and rendered the whole net ineffective in an incredibly short time.
At the time of course the United States had far better ads systems than the soviets. The radar tech was extremely far behind as compared to the west. The net was solidified by dedicated ground based radar installations that were necessary for any effectiveness from their Sam sites if they ever hoped to hit anything at appreciable distances.
Of course they were always a weak point and no military could ever hope to field them in numbers necessesary for surviving against any anti radar attack. The Iraqi skies were clear as could possibly be and there lacked any ground clutter or any way to possibly hide against coalition forces.
When the radar installations went down in the opening hours of the war, the Iraqi ads was rendered completely ineffective, with its density being the only thing left with any hope of being able to maintain a shred of effectiveness.
Serbians with less ads, far less to no ground radar, firing against planes with years greater ECM capabilities did far better due to ground clutter hiding them from bombing and the coalition forces at the time having far fewer angles of attack and paths taken to engagements. They attempted to predict where the attacks were coming from and anticipated these routes very effectively, allowing for as decent of a defense as they could possibly hope for against the coalition.
That F117 shoot down, even though it was due in part to the stupidity of the pilot, was absolutely brilliant on the part of the Sam crew. They predicted the route for the locks and broke the ROE to lock a forth time and fire a one in a million shot. Absolutely brilliant on part of the Serb crew.
Now the ads is different.
