Publisher's Synopsis
When, on the evening of 17 January 1991, the US led a massive air armada to oust Iraqi troops that were illegally occupying Kuwait, by far the most numerous aircraft to take to the skies was the F-16 of the USAF. Indeed, like a swarm of locusts, 210 F-16s from no fewer than five wings - attacking from both Saudi Arabia in the south and Incirlik, in Turkey, in the north - crisscrossed the skies for the duration of the short war, engaged primarily in Battlefield Area Interdiction missions - finding, suppressing and neutralising the machinery of war. The F-16s struck tanks, vehicles, troops and convoys using comparatively primitive techniques - free fall, unguided bombing from medium altitude - that were in stark contrast to the overall sophistication of the F-16 and which were strangely incongruous with what many called 'The Electric Jet'. This baptism of fire, which often saw the aircraft dodging lethal surface-to-air missiles and AAA, came at a price - five were lost to enemy fire. In the years that followed, the F-16 took a leading role in enforcing the no-fly zones that restricted Iraqi military activity in the north and south, and on two occasions downed an Iraqi MiG-23 'Flogger' and MiG-25 'Foxbat'. Meanwhile, the F-16 had continued to evolve, and when NATO stepped in to halt the ethnic cleansing occurring at the hands of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s, specialised night attack and anti-SAM variants of the Fighting Falcon were once again set to work. One was lost to enemy fire and the pilot dramatically rescued, while others sustained damage but still reached the safety of their home bases. One USAF 'Viper' pilot also destroyed three Serbian Jastreb light attack jets in a single intercept - the most aerial victories in one engagement since the Israeli air force during the Beka'a Valley campaign of June 1982. The F-16 claimed another kill - over the advanced MiG-29 'Fulcrum' - in this conflict at the hands of a Dutch pilot. When, in 2001, the President of the United States ordered the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taleban regime in response to the 11 September attacks, the F-16 was once again at the tip of the spear, this time attacking fleeting infantry and vehicular targets in mountainous terrain, and also providing close air support to friendly troops on the ground.
