Topic: War and Peace News - on March 27, 2011 at 1:22:00 PM CEST
Operation Odyssey Dawn explained (Day 8)
And there was (day)light. This could be the motto of Day 7 which saw an increased activity of US tactical aircraft from the early morning: quite a change if we think that, since the beginning of Odyssey Dawn, American tacair had flown almost only at night. The reason could be the following: since USAFE F-15Es and USMC AV-8Bs are involved in the “civilian protection” task (hence, they strike ground targets, see yesterday debrief for more info) they operated at night and at higher altitudes until air power of the coalition (almost) completely cancelled the Libyan air defences reducing the SAM and MANPADS threat to the point that even A-10s and AC-130U gunship 4SOS/16SOW could be deployed to the theatre, with the latter performing the first missions into the Libyan territory right after their arrival in Sigonella. SEAD missions were intensified in the morning, with multiple Wild Weasel flights of both F-16s and EA-18G Growlers out of Aviano airbase, probably securing the airspace for those coalition aircraft that attacked Sabha airbase, where Gaddafi’s forces were reported to be killing locals civilians. In spite of the amount of SEAD missions flown in the Libyan airspace, no HARM was reported to be fired by the three SEAD platform available in theatre: F-16CJs of the 480FS/52FW, the EA-18Gs of the USN VAQ-132 (both at Aviano), and the Tornado ECRs of the 155° Gruppo/50° Stormo of the Italian Air Force, deployed to Trapani.
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