AP 118 · No. 10 Section IV · Numbers The Almanac · 07
The Almanac · No. 071991

The Almanac

Desert Storm

The air war in figures, 1991

Forty-three days, 118,661 sorties and laser-guided bombs on the evening news. Yet more than nine weapons in ten were still dropped the old way.

Five US fighters, F-16s, an F-15C and two F-15Es, fly in loose formation low over desert where oil wells burn and pour black smoke
F-16As, an F-15C and F-15Es of the US Air Force over the burning Kuwaiti oil fields, 1991. Iraqi troops fired more than six hundred wells as they withdrew.
118,661

coalition sorties flown between 17 January and 28 February 1991

43
days of air war before the ceasefire
5,417
sorties flown by the British, third after the US and Saudi Arabia
38
coalition fixed-wing aircraft lost in combat
7.6%
of air weapons dropped were guided
122
Iraqi aircraft flown to Iran, by the USAF’s count

Iraq invaded Kuwait on 2 August 1990. Five and a half months later, at 23.36 GMT on 16 January 1991, a coalition of more than thirty nations began an air campaign that ran without pause until the ceasefire on 28 February. By then about 2,780 coalition fixed-wing aircraft were in theatre, three-quarters of them American, facing an Iraqi air force of some 750 combat aircraft sheltered in nearly six hundred hardened bunkers.

The figures below come chiefly from the US Air Force’s own post-war survey, which counted every sortie, and from the British Joint Commander’s despatch. They show a war that was both newer and older than it looked on television: stealth and laser-guided bombs did a disproportionate share of the important work, but most of the tonnage still fell unguided, and the Royal Air Force paid for a tactic built for a different war.

Ten thousand miles of sorties

Who flew what, and how the force was built

The coalition averaged 2,697 sorties a day and peaked at 3,280 on 24 February, the day the ground war began. The US Air Force flew well over half of them. Britain, with about 160 aircraft of sixteen types in the region, flew the third-largest share after the United States and Saudi Arabia.

118,661coalition sorties, 16 Jan–28 Feball types, combat and support
2,697average sorties a day
3,280sorties on 24 February, the busiest day
2,780coalition fixed-wing aircraft in theatre by 24 February2,430 on the eve of the war
11,024US Air Force tanker sortiesKC-135 9,559 and KC-10 1,465
750Iraqi fixed-wing combat aircrafton more than 60 airfields

Source GWAPS Vol. V, Tables 64, 65 and 81; Gulf War air campaign (Wikipedia, after GWAPS); USAF white paper, Air Force Performance in Desert Storm (April 1991); Hine despatch

Fig. 1

Sorties by service and nation

sorties, 16 Jan–28 Feb 1991
  1. US Air Forceincluding Proven Force from Turkey
    69,406
  2. US Navyincluding 282 Tomahawk launches counted as sorties
    18,303
  3. US Marine Corps
    10,683
  4. Saudi Arabia
    6,852
  5. United Kingdom
    5,417
  6. France
    2,258
  7. Canada
    1,302
  8. US special operations
    1,262
  9. US Army
    916
  10. US civil reserve airliners
    800
  11. Kuwait
    780
  12. Bahrain
    293
  13. Italy
    237
  14. United Arab Emirates
    109
  15. Qatar
    43

From the survey’s sorties-by-aircraft table, which sums to 118,661. The same survey’s mission-type table differs by a few hundred for some services (the Marines and the Navy especially), a discrepancy it notes itself.

Source Gulf War Air Power Survey, Vol. V, Statistical Compendium (1993), Table 81

Fig. 2

The busiest combat types

sorties flown
  1. F-16US Air Force and Bahrain
    13,253
  2. F/A-18 HornetUS Navy and Marines
    9,385
  3. A-10 Thunderbolt II
    8,084
  4. F-15C EagleUS Air Force 5,685; Saudi 2,088
    7,773
  5. A-6 Intruder
    5,619
  6. F-14 Tomcat
    4,005
  7. AV-8B Harrier IIMarines
    3,359
  8. F-4G Wild Weaselradar hunters with HARM missiles
    2,683
  9. Tornado (all nations)UK 2,349, Saudi 1,118, Italy 224
    3,691
  10. F-111F
    2,423
  11. F-15E Strike Eagle
    2,172
  12. B-52 Stratofortress
    1,741
  13. F-117A Nighthawk
    1,299
  14. Jaguar (UK and France)
    1,171

Tornado figure combines RAF GR1 (1,644) and F3 (705), Saudi IDS (667) and ADV (451), and Italian IDS (224); the survey’s F-111E figure is illegible in the scanned copy, so only the F-111F is shown. Survey sortie counts for individual RAF types can differ from the RAF’s own, which give the GR1 force “over 1,500 offensive sorties”.

Source GWAPS Vol. V, Table 81

Fig. 3

Building the force

US Air Force strike aircraft in theatre, by days after the invasion of Kuwait (2 August 1990 = day 0)
  • All USAF strike aircraft
  • of which F-117A stealth fighters
Building the force
YearAll USAF strike aircraftof which F-117A stealth fighters
6240
131260
2022418
2724618
3440618
4042218
6142218
9642318
11742218
12446636
13147836
13848036
14550636
15260236
15967036
16666836
17368636
18069542
18769642
19472842
20673642
21073242

Weekly strength of A-10, AC-130, B-52, F-4G, F-15C, F-15E, F-16, F-111 and F-117 in Central Command. The February jump reflects B-52s added to the theatre count.

Source GWAPS Vol. V, Table 15, CENTAF strike aircraft strength by week

Stealth and precision

The weapons that made the headlines, and the ones that did not

The F-117A was the war’s emblem: a black, faceted bomber flown only at night, whose existence had been admitted barely two years before. It and the Tomahawk cruise missile carried out every attack on downtown Baghdad. The survey credits the F-117 with the bulk of more than 480 precision strikes on leadership and communications targets, and about four in five of the precision strikes against nuclear, biological and chemical sites.

The Air Force’s bolder claims for it were challenged by Congress’s auditors in 1997; they are shown here as claims. The precision revolution itself was real but partial. Of some 227,000 air weapons dropped or fired, fewer than one in thirteen was guided.

Fig. 4

The F-117: a small share of the sorties, a large share of the targets

per cent
  1. Share of all coalition sorties1,299 of 118,661
    1.1%
  2. Share of shooters in theatre, first dayUSAF claim
    2.5%
  3. Share of targets struck, first dayUSAF claim
    31%
  4. Share of strategic targets attacked, whole warUSAF claim, “more than forty per cent”
    40%

The first-day and strategic-target shares are Air Force figures from 1991. The General Accounting Office’s 1997 review of the air campaign concluded that several claims for the F-117 and for guided weapons were overstated; the Air Force disputed its findings.

Source GWAPS Vol. V, Table 81; USAF, Air Force Performance in Desert Storm (April 1991); Air Force Magazine, “GAO Launches a Dud” (1996); GAO/NSIAD-97-134 (1997)

Fig. 5

Guided and unguided air weapons

weapons expended, by number
  • 92% Unguided bombs 210,000
  • 4% Laser-guided bombs 9,342
  • 2% Air-to-surface missiles, mostly Maverick 5,448
  • 0.9% Anti-radiation missiles, mostly HARM 2,039
  • 0.1% Cruise missiles 333

The unguided figure is the survey’s “approximately 210,000”. By weight, guided weapons were about 8 per cent of the tonnage delivered, at about 84 per cent of the munitions bill (GAO). The RAF dropped its first laser-guided bombs on 3 February.

Source Keaney and Cohen, Gulf War Air Power Survey Summary Report (1993); GAO/NSIAD-97-134

A black faceted F-117A leads a formation of Saudi F-15, Tornado and two F-5 fighters over red mountains
An F-117A of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing leading Royal Saudi Air Force F-15C, Tornado and F-5E fighters over the desert during Desert Storm.US Air Force, Public domain · source
A desert-pink RAF Jaguar, XZ396, being serviced on a flight line while a dark grey F-15E taxis behind
RAF Jaguar GR1A XZ396 on the flight line, probably at Muharraq, Bahrain, on 23 January 1991, with a US F-15E Strike Eagle taxiing behind. The Jaguars flew more than 600 sorties without loss.US Air Force (TSgt Rose S. Reynolds), Public domain · source
Overhead reconnaissance photograph of two concrete aircraft shelters, one with a neat hole punched through its roof, the other with its rear wall blown out
Two hardened aircraft shelters at Ahmed Al Jaber airfield, Kuwait, photographed by a US Navy F-14 reconnaissance pod on 11 March 1991. Only laser-guided penetrating bombs could do this; the coalition destroyed some 375 such shelters.
  1. Entry hole of a laser-guided penetrating bomb, punched through several feet of reinforced concrete
  2. Blast doors and their runners torn away on to the apron
  3. The second shelter’s back wall blown out from the inside
  4. Concrete debris thrown across the taxiway
US Navy (VF-84, TARPS), Public domain · source

The RAF’s war

Low and fast for six days, then up to medium level

The RAF went to war trained for the Central Front: Tornado GR1s running in at a few hundred feet at night to scatter JP233 runway-cratering bomblets and mines across Iraqi airfields. It worked, and all the aircraft on the first night came home. But four Tornados were lost on operations in the first six days, and Iraq’s air force had all but stopped flying. On 23 January the GR1s climbed above the guns.

Without laser designators of their own, they turned to an old naval strike jet the RAF still flew: twelve Buccaneers were rushed out from Lossiemouth with Pave Spike pods, and from 3 February Buccaneers marked targets while Tornados dropped the bombs. Two prototype TIALD pods, which the crews named Sandra and Tracey, arrived on 10 February and let the Tornados mark their own, by night.

Fig. 6

British aircraft in the Gulf when the war began

aircraft

= 2 aircraft

  1. Tornado GR1 and GR1Asix GR1A reconnaissance; six equipped for ALARM
    45
  2. Tornado F3
    18
  3. Puma
    19
  4. TankersVC10Ks, Victor K2s and a TriStar
    15
  5. Jaguar GR1A
    12
  6. Buccaneer S.2Barrived from 26 January
    12
  7. Chinook
    12
  8. Sea King (Royal Navy)supporting the land forces
    12

Not shown: Nimrods at Seeb, Hercules, VC10 and TriStar transports, and Royal Navy Lynx at sea. The Joint Commander counted over 160 aircraft of 16 types.

Source Despatch of ACM Sir Patrick Hine, London Gazette supplement 52589 (1991); Jaguar strength from the Gulf War air campaign order of battle (Wikipedia)

Fig. 7

RAF Tornado GR1s lost on operations

aircraft
  1. First six days, 17–22 January: mainly low levelabout one in seven of the Tornados’ war, in days
    4
  2. Remaining 37 days: mainly medium levelone to a premature bomb burst, 23 January; one to a SAM, 14 February
    2

A seventh GR1 was lost to mechanical failure soon after take-off; the crew ejected safely. Five aircrew were killed and seven taken prisoner. The US survey, citing Alfred Price, points out that only one of the early losses happened on a JP233 sortie and two were to radar-guided missiles, so “low level” alone does not explain them.

Source Hine despatch; RAF Museum, British military aviation in 1991; GWAPS Summary Report, p. 63n

A desert-pink RAF Tornado GR1, wings swept back, parked under an open-sided sunshade on a wet apron
An RAF Tornado GR1 under a sunshade at King Abdul Aziz air base, Saudi Arabia, on 14 January 1991, three days before the air war began.
  1. Two-seat cockpit: pilot in front, navigator behind
  2. Wings swept fully back for parking under the shade
  3. Stores slung under the fuselage
  4. Red covers on the RB199 jet pipes against the sand
US Army (SPC Randall R. Anderson), Public domain · source
1,500+Tornado GR1 offensive sorties
123night low-level reconnaissance sorties by six GR1As
214Buccaneer designation sorties
600+Jaguar sorties over enemy territory, without loss
13,000tonnes of fuel off-loaded by RAF tankersin over 730 sorties, to almost 3,000 aircraft, 800 of them other nations’
2,358support-helicopter sortiescarrying 17,773 troops and prisoners

Source Despatch of ACM Sir Patrick Hine, London Gazette supplement 52589 (1991)

A grey Handley Page Victor tanker with large underwing refuelling pods parked on a wet apron
An RAF Victor K2 tanker at Jubail, Saudi Arabia, in March 1991. The Victors, VC10s and TriStars flew more than 730 tanker sorties in the six-week war.
  1. Underwing hose-and-drogue pod; a third hose unit sat in the old bomb bay
  2. High T-tail of the 1950s V-bomber she was built as
US Marine Corps (Lt Col Paul Backs), Public domain · source
Fig. 8

British sorties, by type
Tornado GR1/GR1AStrike, reconnaissance1,644
HerculesTransport832
Tornado F3Air defence705
Jaguar GR1AAttack, reconnaissance600
Survey code “BNIS” (type not identified)–517
VC10Tanker and transport359
Victor K2Tanker277
Buccaneer S.2BLaser designation226
NimrodMaritime patrol, reconnaissance147
TriStarTanker and transport75
Islander (BN-2T)Utility35
Total 5,417. US survey figures from the coalition composite sortie database; the RAF’s own totals differ slightly (for example 214 Buccaneer sorties). The survey does not explain the code “BNIS”; it is listed as recorded.

Source GWAPS Vol. V, Table 81

A desert-pink Buccaneer in a museum hangar, nose radome swung open, with bomb symbols and nose art under the cockpit
Buccaneer S.2B XW547, one of the twelve sent to the Gulf to designate targets for the Tornados, at the RAF Museum, London. She flew eleven sorties.
  1. Mission tally under the cockpit: one bomb for each sortie
  2. Nose art and names, ‘Guinness Gal’ and ‘Pauline’, with the whisky name ‘The Macallan’ below
  3. Radome swung open to show the nose radar
Alan Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source

The losses

One fixed-wing aircraft lost for every 1,800 combat sorties

Coalition air forces lost 38 fixed-wing aircraft in combat. Most were brought down by guns and heat-seeking missiles, the weapons that had done most of the killing over Vietnam. Only one was lost to an Iraqi fighter: a US Navy Hornet shot down by a MiG-25 on the first night, whose pilot, Lieutenant Commander Scott Speicher, was not found until 2009.

Fig. 9

Coalition fixed-wing combat losses, by service and cause

aircraft
  • Anti-aircraft guns
  • Infra-red SAMs
  • Radar-guided SAMs
  • Iraqi fighter
  • Other enemy action
  • Unknown
  1. US Air Force
    3731
    14
  2. US Marine Corps
    25
    7
  3. United Kingdom
    1141
    7
  4. US Navy
    2211
    6
  5. Saudi Arabia
    11
    2
  6. Italy
    1
    1
  7. Kuwait
    1
    1

“Other enemy action” is an EF-111 that crashed while evading what its crew believed was a fighter. The UK row is the survey’s seven Tornado GR1s and so includes the one lost to mechanical failure. Iraqi accounts credit a MiG-29 with one of the RAF Tornados the survey attributes to a radar SAM. Helicopters, and aircraft lost in accidents, are not included: the coalition’s total losses were about 75 aircraft, 23 of them helicopters.

Source GWAPS Vol. V, Table 203, Desert Storm total coalition combat losses by cause

Fig. 10

How rare a loss had become

US aircraft lost per 1,000 combat sorties (approximate)
  1. Linebacker II, North Vietnam, December 1972
    7.8
  2. North Vietnam, 1967
    2.6
  3. Desert Storm, coalition, 1991
    0.6

Derived from the survey’s statement that the Desert Storm rate, about one fixed-wing loss per 1,800 combat sorties, was 4.7 times lower than over North Vietnam in 1967 and some 14 times lower than in Linebacker II.

Source GWAPS Summary Report (1993), p. 62

Low losses stemmed from the combination of successful suppression of Iraqi air defense and the decision to bomb from medium altitudes.

Gulf War Air Power Survey, Summary Report, 1993

The Iraqi Air Force

Shot down, bombed in its shelters, or flown to its old enemy

Iraq’s air force tried to fight for a week. By 25 January coalition fighters had shot down sixteen MiG-29s, MiG-25s and Mirage F1s, and by 27 January the coalition had air supremacy. When laser-guided bombs began breaking open the shelters on 22–23 January, Iraqi pilots started flying their best aircraft east to Iran, the country they had fought for eight years. Iran kept them.

Fig. 11

F-15C Eagle against MiG-29

F-15C Eagle

MiG-29 “Fulcrum”

  • 30,845 kgMaximum take-off weight18,000 kg
  • 19 mLength17 m
  • 96In the war (USAF F-15C; Iraqi MiG-29)50

Verdict The MiG-29 was a dangerous dogfighter on paper. In practice Iraqi pilots flew under rigid ground control into a fight run by AWACS, against F-15Cs that could identify and shoot them beyond visual range. No F-15C was lost to an Iraqi aircraft.

An Iraqi MiG-25 damaged an F-15C with a missile on 30 January; Iraq claims it as a kill, which the USAF denies. Strengths: CENTAF F-15C count in Table 15; Iraqi MiG-29 count (42 single-seat, 8 trainers) from the Iraqi Perspectives Project.

Source GWAPS Vol. V, Table 15, and Summary Report p. 58; McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and Mikoyan MiG-29 specifications (Wikipedia); Iraqi Air Force (Wikipedia, after IDA)

Fig. 12

Iraqi aircraft shot down in air combat

aircraft
  1. Mirage F1two by a Saudi F-15C on 24 January
    8
  2. MiG-23
    8
  3. MiG-29
    5
  4. MiG-21
    4
  5. Su-7/17 familyprobably Su-20s or Su-22s
    3
  6. MiG-25
    2
  7. Su-25
    2
  8. Il-76
    1
  9. Helicopters
    5

33 fixed-wing aircraft and 5 helicopters. A sixth helicopter, a Hind destroyed in the air by an F-15E’s laser-guided bomb on 14 February, was not given kill credit.

Source GWAPS Summary Report (1993), p. 58

Fig. 13

What became of Iraq’s fixed-wing air force

aircraft

= 20 aircraft

  1. Destroyedin the air (23–36) and on the ground
    259
  2. Damaged
    113
  3. Flown to Iran and kept
    125
  4. Survived intact
    500

Iraqi records as compiled by the Iraqi Perspectives Project, covering 1,120 air force aircraft including trainers; the 99 Su-7s and MiG-19/J-6s have no breakdown, and some rows do not sum. Wartime US estimates of aircraft flown to Iran ran from 118 (6 February) to 122.

Source Iraqi Air Force (Wikipedia), after the Iraqi Perspectives Project Phase II, IDA (2008); GWAPS Vol. V chronology; USAF white paper (1991)

Fig. 14

The Iraqi Air Force, type by type
MiG-21 / Chengdu F-723665460115
Trainers (L-39, Tucano, Bravo, Jet Provost, others)21111120174
MiG-23 (all versions)12743101263
Su-20 and Su-22 (all versions)1042493338
Mirage F1 (incl. 8 captured Kuwaiti)962582439
Su-2572318726
Su-7BMK54––––
MiG-2950174425
MiG-19 / Shenyang J-645––––
MiG-2535196010
Su-24MK3050241
Il-76 transports and tankers1931150
BK 117 helicopters141606
Bombers (Tu-16, H-6, Tu-22)1111000
Executive jets (Falcon 20, Falcon 50, JetStar)114061
An-2650302
The Su-24 bomber force went almost entire to Iran: 24 of 30. Iran returned seven Su-25s to Iraq in 2014 and took the rest into its own service.

Source Iraqi Perspectives Project Phase II, Institute for Defense Analyses (2008), via Iraqi Air Force (Wikipedia)

Fig. 15

The forty-three days, and the five months before

  1. Iraq invades Kuwait

  2. Britain announces it will send forces: Operation Granby. The first RAF Tornado F3s reach Saudi Arabia within days

  3. UN Security Council Resolution 678 sets Iraq a deadline of 15 January

  4. Air war begins at 23.36 GMT. Twenty RAF Tornados attack airfields with JP233; all return. A daylight Tornado raid that morning loses one aircraft

    20

  5. F-111Fs begin destroying hardened shelters with laser-guided bombs; Iraqi aircraft start to flee to Iran

  6. RAF Tornados switch to medium-level bombing

  7. A Saudi F-15C shoots down two Mirage F1s sent to bomb Saudi oil installations

    2

  8. Coalition declares air supremacy

  9. First RAF laser-guided bombs dropped, with Buccaneers designating

  10. Two TIALD pods arrive at Tabuk: the Tornados can mark their own targets at night

  11. Bombing of the Al Firdos (Amiriyah) shelter kills several hundred civilians; strikes on central Baghdad are sharply curtailed

  12. The last RAF Tornado lost, to a SAM over Al Taqaddum

  13. Ground offensive begins; 3,280 sorties flown, the most of any day

    3,280

  14. Ceasefire

Source GWAPS Summary Report and Vol. V chronology; Hine despatch; RAF Museum, British military aviation in 1991

Side by side

The Granby types, and the Wild Weasel, in the Gazetteer’s own models

Fig. 16

The Gulf at one scale

drawn to one scale
  1. Nimrod MR.2, side view Nimrod MR.2 39.3 m
  2. Victor K2, side view Victor K2 35.1 m
  3. Sea King HC.4, side view Sea King HC.4 22.2 m
  4. Buccaneer S.2B, side view Buccaneer S.2B 19.3 m
  5. Jaguar GR1A, side view Jaguar GR1A 16.8 m
  6. Lynx, side view Lynx 15.2 m
  7. Gazelle (British Army), side view Gazelle (British Army) 12.0 m
  8. F-111, side view F-111 22.4 m
  9. Hercules C.1, side view Hercules C.1 34.4 m
  10. VC10 K.2, side view VC10 K.2 48.4 m
  11. Chinook HC.1, side view Chinook HC.1 15.5 m
  12. Puma HC.1, side view Puma HC.1 18.2 m
  13. MiG-21 (Iraq), side view MiG-21 (Iraq) 14.9 m

Helicopter spans are main-rotor diameters. Tornado span is with the wings spread.

Fig. 17

The Gulf air war, parked together

live 3D, true scale
  • Tornado GR1 16.7 m long, 13.9 m span
  • Jaguar GR1A 16.8 m long, 8.7 m span
  • Buccaneer S.2B 19.3 m long, 13.4 m span
  • Victor K2 35.1 m long, 36.6 m span
  • Lynx 15.2 m long, 12.8 m rotor
  • F-111 22.4 m long, 19.2 m span
  • Hercules C.1 34.4 m long, 40.4 m span
  • VC10 K.2 48.4 m long, 44.6 m span
  • Chinook HC.1 15.5 m long, 18.3 m rotor
  • Puma HC.1 18.2 m long, 15.0 m rotor

Tornados, Jaguars and Buccaneers all flew from Muharraq; the RAF’s tankers were based there and at King Khalid International, Riyadh. The Lynx stands in for the Royal Navy helicopters that sank much of Iraq’s navy from frigates in the northern Gulf.

Fig. 18

Where to see them

in British museums

Gulf veterans on show include Buccaneer XW547 at the RAF Museum, London.

Sources

  1. Thomas A. Keaney and Eliot A. Cohen, Gulf War Air Power Survey: Summary Report (US Government Printing Office, 1993)
  2. Gulf War Air Power Survey, Vol. V: A Statistical Compendium and Chronology (1993)
  3. Despatch by Air Chief Marshal Sir Patrick Hine, Joint Commander of Operation Granby, London Gazette supplement 52589 (28 June 1991)
  4. Department of the Air Force, White Paper: Air Force Performance in Desert Storm (April 1991), via PBS Frontline
  5. US General Accounting Office, Operation Desert Storm: Evaluation of the Air Campaign, GAO/NSIAD-97-134 (1997)
  6. Air Force Magazine, “GAO Launches a Dud” (September 1996)
  7. RAF Museum, History of aviation timeline: British military aviation in 1991
  8. Kevin M. Woods et al., Iraqi Perspectives Project Phase II: Um Al-Ma’arik (Institute for Defense Analyses, 2008), via Iraqi Air Force (Wikipedia)
  9. Gulf War air campaign (Wikipedia)
  10. Operation Granby (Wikipedia)
  11. List of Gulf War pilots by victories (Wikipedia)
  12. McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle (Wikipedia): specifications
  13. Mikoyan MiG-29 (Wikipedia): specifications
  14. Alfred Price, “Tornado in the Desert”, Air Force Magazine (December 1992)
  15. John Nichol, Tornado: In the Eye of the Storm (Simon & Schuster, 2021)

Photographs

  • F-16As, an F-15C and F-15Es of the US Air Force over the burning Kuwaiti oil fie — US Air Force, Public domain · source
  • An F-117A of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing leading Royal Saudi Air Force F-15C, — US Air Force, Public domain · source
  • RAF Jaguar GR1A XZ396 on the flight line, probably at Muharraq, Bahrain, on 23 J — US Air Force (TSgt Rose S. Reynolds), Public domain · source
  • Two hardened aircraft shelters at Ahmed Al Jaber airfield, Kuwait, photographed — US Navy (VF-84, TARPS), Public domain · source
  • An RAF Tornado GR1 under a sunshade at King Abdul Aziz air base, Saudi Arabia, o — US Army (SPC Randall R. Anderson), Public domain · source
  • An RAF Victor K2 tanker at Jubail, Saudi Arabia, in March 1991. The Victors, VC1 — US Marine Corps (Lt Col Paul Backs), Public domain · source
  • Buccaneer S.2B XW547, one of the twelve sent to the Gulf to designate targets fo — Alan Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source

Figures are drawn from the sources above; where they disagree the most widely cited figure is used and the range is given in the notes. Side profiles and 3D models are the gazetteer’s own procedural models, drawn to scale from published dimensions. Spotted an error? Tell us.