Description

Great Book by Osprey Publishing. 96 pages
The F/A-18 Hornet in its various guises was the 'universal soldier' of OIF, with some 250 seeing combat during the campaign from land bases and the five supercarriers of the US Navy that were committed to the war from the Arabian Gulf and eastern Mediterranean. This volume covers the operations flown by the non-US Navy units that flew the Hornet in OIF, namely the seven Marine Corps squadrons (totalling 84 Hornets) and the single 14-aircraft unit from the Royal Australian Air Force. The Marines worked closely with their own forces on the ground in the drive towards Baghdad, seeing significant action against the T-62 and T-72 tanks of the various Iraqi Republican Guard units defending the various Iraqi cities on the road to the capital. Five of the seven Marine units were shore-based in Kuwait during OIF, while two units flew from the USS Constellation and the USS Harry S Truman. Operating the F/A-18A+, F/A-18C and the unique F/A-18D variants, the Marine jets were capable of dropping or launching an encyclopaedic array of ordnance such as precision munitions (JDAMs and laser-guided bombs), anti-radar missiles and Maverick anti-tank rounds. The 14 Australian Hornets that deployed to Qatar were also configured in such a way that they too could employ all the latest American weaponry. The detachment was staffed by 250 personnel, and it marked the first occasion that RAAF fighters had deployed to an overseas theatre since the Korean War. The dropping of 122 bombs on targets by the RAAF jets also marked the first occasion that the Australians had attacked an enemy since the Vietnam War.