Chapter 1124 The First Day of the Iraq War

Faced with the joint action of the Iraqi Navy and Air Force, the Joint Force Navy, located 200 nautical miles off the Iraqi coastline, destroyed 8 Type 022 missile boats, 10 Type 022A torpedo boats, 3 Type 054 frigates, and 1 Type 052 destroyer of the Iraqi Navy, and shot down 226 aircraft of various types of the Iraqi Air Force.

However, the three major US aircraft carrier fleets and Allied naval warships in the Persian Gulf also suffered huge losses.

103 carrier-based aircraft were lost, 136 anti-aircraft missiles were launched, 299 cruise missiles were launched, 8 frigates were sunk, 3 frigates were severely damaged, 6 destroyers were sunk, 4 destroyers were severely damaged, a British light aircraft carrier was sunk, a US Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier was severely damaged, two cruisers were sunk, 3 cruisers were severely damaged, 6 armed transport ships, amphibious assault ships, and large integrated supply ships were sunk, 5 conventional submarines were sunk, and 1 nuclear attack submarine was sunk.

The Iraqi Navy launched a total of 110 torpedoes, 269 ship-launched anti-ship missiles, and 123 air-launched anti-ship missiles.

These destroyed Iraqi naval warships and Iraqi naval officers and soldiers seemed tragic, but their record was brilliant.

The narrow Persian Gulf prevented the joint naval warships from dispersing, and they paid a huge price.

No matter how powerful the air defense system is, it still cannot stop this saturation attack.

The loss is so great that it is enough to scare the joint naval forces.

A "Kongo" class Aegis destroyer of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force panicked and lost its way into the Persian waters. Persia launched anti-ship missiles and destroyed the "Kongo" class Aegis destroyer, which made the commander of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force very angry, and Japan lodged a serious protest to Persia.

Persia has a very tough attitude, saying that if any warship enters the Persian waters without permission, Persia will sink it without hesitation, and said that if the joint naval forces want to threaten Persia, Persia will block the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait of Hormuz is a strait connecting the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. It is also the only waterway that enters the Persian Gulf. The north bank of the strait is Persia, and the south bank is Oman. There is a large island called Qeshm Island in the middle of the strait, which belongs to Persia.

As one of the busiest waterways in the world today, the Strait of Hormuz is also known as an important throat in the world. It has a very important economic and strategic position. It is the only sea route for the transportation of oil from the Gulf region to all parts of the world.

Most of the oil from the oil-producing countries along the Gulf coast is transported to Western Europe, Australia, the United States and other places through this strait, and it collectively bears 60% of the supply of Western oil-consuming countries. Therefore, the Strait of Hormuz is also known as the Western "maritime lifeline" and "oil strait"!

Qeshm Island is 112 kilometers long, 11 to 32 kilometers wide, and covers an area of ​​1,336 square kilometers. The island is almost entirely flat hills, some of which are over 270 meters high, with the highest elevation of 406 meters. Not only is there the "Qeshm Island Oil Terminal" jointly built by China and Persia, the project can accommodate 140-meter-deep tankers and a total of at least 60 million barrels of crude oil. Moreover, Persia has built artillery units and coastal defense units here, which can easily block the entire Strait of Hormuz.

Japan was furious and depressed to the point of vomiting blood.

The "Kongō-class" destroyer is a missile destroyer equipped with the Aegis combat system and assigned to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. It was built by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in 1988 to improve its air defense capabilities. It is also the largest combat ship in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

The Kongo-class destroyer is 161 meters long, 21 meters wide, and 6.2 meters deep. It has a standard displacement of 7,250 tons, a full load displacement of 9,485 tons, a crew of 300 people, a cruising range of 6,000 nautical miles/20 knots, and a maximum speed of 30 knots. The radars include AN/SPY-1D 3D phased array radar, OPS-28D plane search radar, and OPS-20 navigation radar. The sonars include OQS-102 active/passive bow sonar and OQR-2 passive towed array sonar. Other equipment includes 4×MK-36 jammer launch systems, 1×AN/SLQ-25A torpedo countermeasure system, and 1×NOLQ-2 electronic warfare system.

The entire Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is equipped with only 4 Kongo-class destroyers.

Under the coercion of the United States, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force dispatched 2 ‘Kongo-class’ destroyers, 4 ‘Hatsuyuki-class’ general-purpose destroyers, 2 ‘Yamagumo-class’ destroyers, 4 ‘Chikugo-class’ frigates, 1 ‘Haruna-class’ helicopter destroyer, 1 ‘Tachikaze-class’ destroyer, several minesweepers, and several supply ships.

But in just one day, the Japanese Self-Defense Force lost 2 ‘Kongo-class’ destroyers and 1 ‘Haruna-class’ helicopter destroyer.

You know, this is not a war belonging to Japan, but a war belonging to the United States.

Originally, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force only needed to help out and fish in troubled waters, and then conquer Iraq and share some benefits.

As a result, I didn’t expect the loss to be so great!

You know, it is not easy for Japan to accumulate such a second largest navy in East Asia under various names, and the Japanese devils with guilty consciences are under great pressure.

On the first day of the Iraq War, the international oil price was directly pushed up to US$50/barrel, and the natural gas price exceeded US$8.5/thousand cubic feet.

At the same time, it also left military experts around the world stunned and dumbfounded.

Before this, military experts from all over the world were analyzing that the joint forces were more powerful and had more advanced weapons. They would carry out large-scale bombings like the Gulf War, and even rely on cruise missiles and large-scale air strikes to destroy Iraq. The ground forces only needed to clean up and maintain public order.

However, on the first day of the war, the two sides launched a large-scale missile war, a large-scale air battle, a large-scale naval battle, and a large-scale artillery bombardment.

This is also the biggest confrontation between American and Soviet weapons in history.

F15 fighter jets vs. Su-27 fighter jets, F16 fighter jets vs. MiG-29 fighter jets.

No one expected that Iraq, with more backward missiles and overall backward aircraft performance, could cause such a huge blow to the joint forces, and the loss was jaw-dropping.

The combat effectiveness of Iraq was really astonishing.

Air defense alarms continued to ring in major cities in Iraq, and the Iraqi people almost spent their time in basements and air-raid shelters.

Iraq's air defense forces encountered severe tests.

Iraq's air force also encountered severe tests.

After the joint forces counted the losses, the top commander was furious. The losses were so great that it was simply unacceptable.

He wanted to slap the intelligence department a few times. How did they collect intelligence? Where did Iraq get so many missiles?

And didn’t they say that the intelligence department had bribed a large number of Iraqi army generals?

This is the result?

The atmosphere of the entire joint forces headquarters was extremely depressing. They originally wanted to have a good start, but it turned out that this was a bad start.

The entire joint forces headquarters realized that they had to destroy Iraq’s navy, eliminate Iraq’s air force, and destroy Iraq’s air defense system. Otherwise, the joint forces would not be able to have absolute air superiority and carry out large-scale bombing on Iraq like during the Gulf War.