Since Schwartzkov announced his mastery of air supremacy in the theater, the air strikes of the multinational forces have entered the third stage, that is, battlefield preparations and laying the prerequisite foundation for a large-scale ground offensive by the multinational forces. During this period, the air power of the multinational force in the Gulf region began to concentrate on attacking the Republican Guard and the Iraqi forces in the Kuwait theater, and the focus of the attack shifted from strategic targets in Iraq to tactical targets in the Kuwait theater.

A key objective of the air strikes was the destruction of important bridges in Iraq. Some of the bridges on the lines of communication between Baghdad and the Kuwait theater of operations were of two important importances, on the one hand, for the transport of supplies to the Iraqi army to the front line, and on the other hand, as carriers of Iraqi communications cables.

Therefore, the bombing of these bridges would not only cut off the Iraqi army's supply lines to support the war zone, but would also disrupt the Iraqi army's communications network connecting the Kuwaiti war zone. With this in mind, the Multinational Force Joint Operations Command's campaign planning staff has identified about 40 of the 54 bridges spanning the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as prime targets. In addition, railway dispatch yards, fuel depots and resupply staging sites have been targeted by the Multinational Force's air force assaults.

The Multinational Force's air power to cut off the railway line south from Basra through Zubayr to the Kuwaiti theater of operations, as well as the bridges over the Tigris and Phrarates rivers, have yielded remarkable results. This interdiction attack has significantly reduced the supply and transportation from Baghdad to the Kuwaiti theater of operations, making it extremely difficult and slow for the Iraqi army to supply the Iraqi army in the Kuwaiti theater. Only half a week after the start of the operation, the amount of supplies arriving in the Kuwaiti theater of operations was insufficient to maintain the level required for the operation. Due to the shortage of food and other supplies, most of the Iraqi army personnel in the Kuwait theater are weakened and, more importantly, their morale is low, and their fighting spirit is slowly declining.

At the same time, the bombing of bridges and the Iraqi Army's C3 (Command, Control and Communications) system by the multinational forces caused serious damage to the Iraqi Army's communications and command network in the Kuwait Theater of Operations. Communications between the headquarters of corps and divisions deployed along the Kosha border, as well as between divisions and their subordinate units, have been intermittent, and in many cases Iraqi commanders have had to communicate with other units or superiors and subordinates by dispatching signal corps, by car or on foot. There were even units that did not have contact with their superiors for two weeks during this period.

In addition to striking at Iraq's lines of communication and communications and command networks, another important objective of the multinational force is to destroy the Iraqi army's ground armor capabilities. In particular, the Iraqi army is equipped with hundreds of MBT-1000 Rhino I main battle tanks, and even the US military is quite afraid of them. Even the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, Schwartzkov, has lukewarmly criticized China's stance on arms sales for not being firm enough, the threshold is too low, and the review is not strict, which is now causing big trouble for the multinational forces.

The Chinese soldiers just listen to this kind of thing, and it's all when Old Man Schwartzkov farts. The United States is indeed cautious, but it is a political conditionality, and there are many times when the Americans are irresponsible, otherwise how did Iran's American-style equipment come from?

The main tank sent by the U.S. military in this war is the M1 Abrams, of which the M1A1, the standard third-generation version of the main battle tank, is not large, mainly the early model of the M1, not equipped with Rheinmetall's M256 gun (still 105mm caliber), no M829 depleted uranium armor-piercing shells, no depleted uranium armor, and no collective protection nuclear, biological and chemical systems.

The initial model of the M1 has no advantage over the Rhino I, especially in terms of the main gun, the 125mm gun of the Iraqi MBT-1000 can penetrate the frontal armor of the M1 main battle tank within 2000 meters, while the 105mm M68A1 gun of the early version of the Abrams can penetrate the frontal armor of the Rhino I type, but it depends on luck, and it cannot be absolutely penetrated.

M1 is like this, not to mention the M60 tanks equipped by the US army and the homemade tanks of Britain and France.

Therefore, the elimination of the Iraqi armored group, especially the Rhino I main battle tank, which may threaten the strength of the multinational force's ground strength, is an urgent task in the last phase of the multinational force's Desert Storm operation.

Saeed, an officer of the Republican Guard? As Karim patrolled the "graveyard" in a jeep, Saeed, an armored officer, was not in a good mood right now, because he thought that the leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein? Hussein did a rather stupid thing, which was to bury all the Iraqi tanks under the sand.

The Iraqi army's armored forces not only support the Iraqi army's positions in Kuwait, but can also pose a huge threat to the Gulf countries. Saddam Hussein is particularly precious to these armored forces that support Iraq's strong presence in the Middle East. In order to evade the air raids of the multinational forces, the Iraqi army carefully camouflaged the armored vehicles. In many cases, Iraqi tanks and artillery were scattered and concealed in trenches, with only the turret exposed, surrounded by sandbags and sand banks. As a result, these tanks were turned into fixed turrets, hidden in the sand, and the strategy was to sacrifice mobility in exchange for self-storage.

These "fixed tanks" are often hidden behind a sand barrier erected by the Iraqi army, and when the tanks and armored vehicles of the multinational force need to cross the obstacle and climb over the sand barrier, their vulnerable territory will be exposed, and Saddam Hussein thinks that he is smart that the fixed tanks can destroy them directly at this time, plus they are hidden in the sand, and it is difficult for the multinational forces to find out through aerial reconnaissance, so there is almost no risk.

For a true tank officer, this was a dead end, and Said could not imagine turning these maneuverable tanks into fixed turrets, even though the tanks were solidly defended, but he still feared that the multinational force would find a way to destroy Iraq's armor.

In view of this, he often ran out with his guards to observe, hoping to detect something wrong in advance and avoid heavy losses on these tanks.

This is the fourth time he has come out on patrol, and the war zone is no longer safe, although the Iraqis still control it, but the air strikes launched by the multinational force have made every Iraqi occupation force feel cold sweat and chills on their backs.

The Iraqi armored troops have experienced the baptism of the Iran-Iraq war, and they are more combat-effective armored soldiers, and they also believe that "the tank has always been a friend of the Iraqi soldiers, and it can protect the soldiers from enemy fire in the cold night of the desert." ”

It's just that they never imagined that this idea would be reversed from this day on, and Said was a witness to what happened.

A squadron of Qiang-7 Defender stealth attack planes flew out of nowhere, they were not obvious in the night sky, and they deliberately did not turn on the flight indicators, because because of their stealth characteristics and most of the Iraqi radar was destroyed, so the Iraqis did not detect them at all.

Just because others can't see them doesn't mean they can't see others.

"Night owl, this is Cloud City, turn on the downward-looking infrared thermal imaging display and start locating enemy targets."

"Night owls understand, infrared thermal imaging is on."

Although the Iraqi tanks were buried in the sand and well camouflaged, making it quite difficult to catch with the naked eye and some other means of reconnaissance, the multinational air force had a way to locate and strike them. The specific heat capacity of the metal of the tank is different from that of the sand in the desert, so the rate at which the two lose their temperature is also different after entering the night.

"FT-2, launch!" Stealth attack planes began to release laser-guided bombs, these tanks that could not move freely, completely became the target of these planes in the sky, and there was no need to use any complex anti-armor missiles, as long as they used laser-guided bombs such a relatively simple and cheap weapon, these tanks could be easily destroyed.

The J-7 defenders kept dropping bombs, blasting fire in the night. Said, who was far closer to this side, was stunned, although he was not happy with the plan of burying the tank in the sand, but he did not expect the multinational force to find a way to strike so quickly.

"Quick, get those soldiers in the tank out of the tank and hide in the trenches behind!" Said knew that he couldn't save the tanks anymore, and that the only option was to keep a little armor seed.

In another plane, this tactic was originally discovered by an F-111 Aardvark pilot who returned in the evening, and this plane is the tactical concept proposed by the Chinese military, and this attack was intended to let the J-7 come to verify this pattern. An attack aircraft loaded with 8 tons of ammunition was able to destroy at least a dozen or twenty tanks in a single sortie, and the results were verified, which greatly shocked the members of the Joint Operations Command.

Schwarzkov immediately jumped out at this time and ordered a large number of US fighters to take off and sweep all corners of the war zone at night according to this method, looking for Iraqi tanks buried in the sand like treasure hunting. A-10, F-15E, F-16, AV-8B and F/A-18 fighters entered the war zone with a variety of guided weapons and began to inflict devastating strikes on Iraqi tanks.

After Qi Yiming learned of this matter, he could only express high contempt for Schwartzkov's character, and Iraqi tanks without mobility and counterattack capabilities were simply an excellent target for the multinational forces to brush up on their combat achievements, and this kind of thing Schwartzkov could not let the Chinese take the lead, so a large number of US military planes were dispatched to participate in the attack. On the other hand, China's air force is not to be outdone, and dozens of warplanes have been dispatched to destroy Iraqi tanks.

In this strange hunt and immobile tank operation, the Iraqi army lost at least 500 tanks of various types, including nearly 100 of the most elite MBT-1000 Rhino I tanks.