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Iraq's military ground forces consist of about 350,000 soldiers
split into five corps. The Republican Guard is an elite fighting
force consisting of 15,000 to 26,000 soldiers charged with
protecting President Saddam Hussein and his government. The
army operates between 1,000 and 2,000 tanks. The Iraqi Air
Force was decimated during the 1991 Gulf War, but still boasts
an array of Russian and French fighter jets and bombers and
a
force of 30,000 soldiers. The small Iraqi Navy also suffered
losses during the Gulf War, and is now thought to operate 21
vessels and a force of 2,000. Most of the vessels are fast-attack
craft, minesweepers, patrol ships and supply and transport
vessels.
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The US Military is scattered all around the neighboring countries
of Iraq. For complete information on
the Coalition Members you may click
here.
The U.S. military has at least 50 satellites supporting the
war in Iraq — including highly classified
radio-listening satellites and weather satellites that anybody
can use.
All were launched after the end of the first Persian Gulf war.
The military's resources in space also
include the 28 satellites of the Global Positioning System,
as well as commercial communications and
Earth resource satellites.
"The DSCS bird provides anti-jam, beyond-line-of-sight
communications to tanks to the Army,
ships to the Navy and aircraft to the Air Force," said
Christine Anderson, program manager for the Defense Satellite
Communications System [DSCS]. "It really is the lifeline
of our troops overseas."
During the first Gulf war, a pair of DSCS satellites transmitted
80 percent of the military traffic between the Middle East and
the United States.
"If you're a telecommunications satellite, you don't want
my satellite to be interfering with your
satellite. They have to keep them apart," said astronomer
Jonathan McDowell, who maintains a
database of satellites, including publicly known information
about U.S. military satellites. "The
International Telecommunications Union negotiates those slots.
Most of the military communications
satellites have slots filed with the ITU.
"The British Skynet 4D military [communications satellite]
was moved at the end of 2002 to get a
better view of the Middle East," Mr. McDowell said. "The
satellite was moved from the Atlantic
Ocean to a position almost directly south of Iraq."
The British also have Skynet 4E over the Indian Ocean, Mr. McDowell
said. "So this is really well-placed to support communications
between the Middle East and Europe," he said. "It
would be a fairly [sure] guess that the U.S. could have moved
some of its [spare] satellites for better coverage over the
region, too."
The United States owns five reconnaissance satellites capable
of taking images over Iraq. "There are
two Keyholes in the standard orbital planes, plus an older Keyhole,
which has drifted into a different
orbit," satellite observer Ted Molczan said.
Each Keyhole satellite passes over Iraq twice a day —
in daylight and darkness.In addition, there are two radar satellites,
often called "Lacrosse" because of an early code name.
The
Lacrosse satellites make about six passes over Iraq each day.
They use an active radar system to take images day and night
and are not affected by the weather.
The Defense Support Program (DSP) missile-warning satellites
were originally designed to monitor
missile tests, but also are capable of monitoring short-range
missiles, such as the Scud. During the
first Gulf war, DSP satellites tracked Scuds that Iraq launched
toward Israel.
In the extremely classified category are seven National Reconnaissance
Office (NRO) satellites in
geostationary orbit, 22,300 miles above the equator. These satellites
are believed to be radio-
monitoring platforms with giant antennas that open like an umbrella,
sensitive enough to monitor
cell-phone conversations.
"The DSP missile-monitoring satellites and the NRO's listening
birds have unpublished locations," Mr.
McDowell said.
However, "the Milstar satellites are so large they can
be viewed by the naked eye under ideal conditions and are easily
visible in small binoculars," Mr. Molczan said. "It
would be absurd to try to hide their existence."
Besides operational communications, the Navy's Global Broadcast
Service is used for what the Navy
calls "quality of life." It can be used to provide
the same broadcasts to military personnel that they
would get in the United States on a home satellite dish.
The STS-99 Space Radar Topography Mission that flew on the Space
Shuttle Endeavour in February
2000 produced a three-dimensional map of the world. Those data
are available to military planners,
including Marine units in the field and programmers entering
a course into a cruise missile.
The 28-satellite Global Positioning System is used for navigation,
especially for precision weapons.
GPS satellites can be used to guide bombs or aircraft with pinpoint
precision.
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