Operation Northern Watch (ONW), the successor to

Operation Provide Comfort Operation Provide Comfort and Provide Comfort II were military operations initiated by the United States and other Coalition nations of the Persian Gulf War, starting in April 1991, to defend Kurdish refugees fleeing their homes in northern ...

, was a Combined Task Force (CTF) charged with enforcing its own

no-fly zone A no-fly zone, also known as a no-flight zone (NFZ), or air exclusion zone (AEZ), is a territory or area established by a military power over which certain aircraft are not permitted to fly. Such zones are usually set up in an enemy power's terri ...

above the 36th parallel in Iraq. Its mission began on 1 January 1997. The coalition partners of the United States, United Kingdom, and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

provided approximately 45 aircraft and more than 1,400 personnel to support Operation Northern Watch.http://www.stripes.com/01/jun01/ed060401a.html The joint U.S. forces of some 1,100 U.S. personnel, included airmen, sailors, soldiers, and Marines, as well as aircraft from every arm of the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...

. The original mandate from the

Turkish government The Government of Turkey () is the national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative democracy and a constitutional republic within a pluriform multi-party system. The term government can me ...

allowed the operation to continue for six months. Turkey subsequently approved two 6-month extensions, but indicated that it would not become a permanent mission. For the first year of the mission, northern Iraq was quiet, with no combat between Coalition aircraft and Iraqi forces. Operation Northern Watch forces did not take part in

Operation Desert Fox The 1998 bombing of Iraq (code-named Operation Desert Fox) was a major bombing campaign against Iraqi targets, from 16 to 19 December 1998, by the United States and the United Kingdom. On 16 December 1998 Bill Clinton announced that he had order ...

in December 1998. After Desert Fox, Iraq announced they would no longer recognize the no-fly zones and urged their troops to attack Coalition aircraft. On 28 December 1998 Iraq fired

SA-3 The S-125 ''Neva/Pechora'' (, NATO reporting name SA-3 ''Goa'') is a Soviet surface-to-air missile system that was designed by Aleksei Isaev to complement the S-25 and S-75. It has a shorter effective range and lower engagement altitude than ei ...

surface to air missiles against coalition aircraft patrolling the northern no-fly zone. In response, U.S. Air Force (USAF)

F-15E The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15E Strike Eagle is an American all-weather multirole strike fighter derived from the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. Intended for the Dual-Role Fighter (DRF) program (initially called Enhanced Tactical Fi ...

F-16CJ A large number of variants of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon have been produced by General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and various licensed manufacturers. The details of the F-16 variants, along with major modification programs and der ...

s, and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC)

EA-6B The Northrop Grumman (formerly Grumman) EA-6B Prowler is a twin-engine, four-seat, mid-wing electronic-warfare aircraft. Operated by both the United States Marine Corps and United States Navy between 1971 and 2019, it was derived from the A-6 I ...

s launched

anti-radiation missile An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be ta ...

s and dropped

precision guided munition A precision-guided munition (PGM), also called a smart weapon, smart munition, or smart bomb, is a type of weapon system that integrates advanced guidance and control systems, such as GPS, laser guidance, or infrared sensors, with various ty ...

s (PGMs) on the SA-3 ground-based missile site that fired on the ONW aircraft, and destroyed it.Transcript from 16 Nov 1999 briefing of Brig Gen David A. Deptula, commander ONW 1998, 1999 at the Aerospace Power Seminar series, Washington, D.C. From December 1998 to March 1999, U.S. aircraft over northern Iraq came under almost daily fire from Iraqi

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

sites and anti-aircraft guns. U.S. aircraft responded by bombing Iraqi air-defense sites, using

laser-guided bomb A laser-guided bomb (LGB) is a guided bomb that uses semi-active laser guidance to strike a designated target with greater accuracy than an unguided bomb. First developed by the United States during the Vietnam War, laser-guided bombs quickly pro ...

s as well as

AGM-88 HARM The AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) is a tactical, air-to-surface anti-radiation missile designed to home in on electronic transmissions coming from surface-to-air radar systems. It was originally developed by Texas Instruments ...

missiles and

AGM-130 The AGM-130 was an air-to-ground guided missile developed by the United States of America. Developed in 1984, it is effectively a rocket-boosted version of the GBU-15 bomb. It first entered operational service on 11 January 1999, and was retired ...

long range air-to-surface missiles."Operation Northern Watch: 1999 Events"
GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 22 February 2016.Michael Knights, ''Cradle of Conflict: Iraq and the Birth of Modern U.S. Military Power'', 2005, p.225 The first combat use of the AGM-130 was conducted during ONW, when F-15Es deployed a pair to destroy two Iraqi SAM sites. Coalition aircraft flew patrols on an average of 18 days per month, and were usually fired upon. The most common threat was from anti-aircraft guns. Despite

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

offering a $14,000 reward for downing a Coalition aircraft, no warplanes were shot down. Low level conflict continued up until the

invasion of Iraq An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives ...

in 2003, although the number of response incidents declined dramatically after 1999. The final

combat air patrol Combat air patrol (CAP) is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft. A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, ...

occurred on 17 March 2003 (from the

Incirlik Air Base Incirlik Air Base () is a Republic of Turkey, Turkish air base of slightly more than 3320 ac (1335 ha), located in the İncirlik quarter of the city of Adana, Turkey. The base is within an urban area of 1.7 million people, east of the city ...

) by the 181st FW

Indiana Air National Guard The Indiana Air National Guard (IN ANG) is the aerial militia of the Indiana, state of Indiana, United States, United States of America. It is a reserve of the United States Air Force and along with the Indiana Army National Guard, an element of ...

and the 55th FW Shaw AFB SC. Six weeks later the operation concluded with an official stand down on 1 May 2003. A grand total of 36,000 sorties were flown during Operation Northern Watch, and 40,000 personnel had been deployed at some point during the operation. Operation Northern Watch was the longest combat operation in the history of the European Command.

References

External links

Global Security brief on Operation Northern Watch
{{coord missing, Iraq Iraqi no-fly zones conflict Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Modern history of Iraq Northern Watch Northern Watch Northern Watch Aerial bombing operations and battles

See also

References

External links