Empire Conquest-Chapter 714 - 30: Battle of the Systems_3

Fortunately, Iraq’s air defense system was not impregnable.

In the air defense system that covered the nation and focused on Baghdad and Basra, there was a vulnerability.

To the west of Basra, southwest of Hammar Lake, and south of Nasiriyah facing Saudi Arabia, there was only a single air defense radar responsible for long-range alert, and its deployment was rather protruding. The nearest other air defense units were dozens of kilometers away.

Against the Royal Air Force of Saudi Arabia, such a deployment posed no problem.

Facing the Empire Air Force, it was a deadly Achilles’ heel.

Simply put, if one could destroy this radar, they could rip open a gap in Iraq’s tightly woven air defense net, through which fighter jets and missiles could enter.

Through this gap, stealth attack aircraft and cruise missiles could directly target Baghdad!

However, destroying this radar station was no easy task.

It was not merely a radar station, but a fully formed air defense unit, equipped not only with radar but also with three anti-aircraft battalions nearby.

One of these battalions was equipped with more than 10 self-propelled High-altitude Guns, specifically for targeting low-altitude threats!

These quad-barreled 23mm High-altitude Guns, produced by the Luosha Democratic Republic, were claimed to be the bane of armed helicopters.

Moreover, this radar was capable of mobile deployment!

When threatened, it could relocate within five minutes.

Clearly, even with an ultra-low-altitude surprise assault, one could not guarantee the radar’s destruction in one fell swoop.

There was another difficult issue to deal with.

The intelligence Ding Zhennan had, had actually been gathered during the Iran-Iraq War when the Military Intelligence Bureau had close relations with Iraq, at best verified by reconnaissance satellites during this period. Therefore, the timeliness was quite evident and not necessarily reliable.

That is to say, accurate information needed to be obtained through preliminary reconnaissance.

In other words, this was also the most critical part of "Operation Kick Door."

One had to first launch a raid to take out the crucial radar, tear open a hole in Iraq’s air defense net, and then have the "Attack-11" and cruise missile assault force infiltrate through it to storm Baghdad and destroy Iraq’s communication and command-and-control systems in one fell swoop.

After crippling Iraq’s Army command network, the next move would be a strike from the Alliance Army’s air power.

Ding Zhennan handed this extremely important and difficult task over to the troops he knew best.

Yes, it was the Army Air Force.

To be precise, it was the Army Air Force along with the Army Special Forces.

As for the tactics, they were not really a secret.

In past exercises, the Army had always emphasized the "tree-top height advantage" of armed helicopters, which were particularly suited to high-difficulty surprise missions. They could rely on extremely low flight altitudes and use terrain for concealment to avoid detection by enemy air defense radar.

As for the Special Forces, there was even less to say.

To date, no technology had been able to replace Special Forces for reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines.

Actually, in large-scale conventional warfare, the main role of Special Forces had been to carry out high-risk reconnaissance missions.

Delaying the second round of strikes by two days was also related to this.

At least two days were needed to get the Special Forces into position!

Furthermore, according to Ding Zhennan’s plans, the assault would not officially begin until the Special Forces sent back their reconnaissance reports.