The war begins as the United States enters scene after a call for protection by Saudi Arabia. President George Bush and the United States had set a deadline for January 15, 1991. On this date all Iraq forces were to be out of Kuwait. Saddam then decides to ignore the deadline. The ignored decision by Saddam then triggered Desert Shield, which is the build up of troops in the region. This eventually leads to Desert Storm or an all out attack to free Kuwait.

On January 17, 1991, Desert Storm began with a coordinated attack, which included tomahawk land attack missiles that were launched from cruisers, destroyers and battleships in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. The tomahawk land attack missile launches created a cautiously crafted joint strategic air campaign.

More than 1,000 Navy and Marine Corps aircrafts joined the U.S. Army, Air Force, and coalition partners to knock out the Iraqi military machine. The air campaign was conducted in four phases. Phase 1 was to gain air superiority by destroying Iraq's strategic capabilities. That phase was accomplished within the first seven days. Phase 2 required the destruction of air defenses in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations. During Phase 3, the coalition airmen continued to service Phase 1 and 2 targets as needed, but also shifted emphasis to the field army in Kuwait. Finally, Phase 4 required air support of ground operations.

The initial barrage of over 100 tomahawk land attack missiles took out heavily defended targets in the vicinity of Baghdad. This made a critical contribution to eliminating Iraqi air defenses and command and control capabilities.

In all, two hundred and eighty eight tomahawk land attack missiles were launched as part of the linked air campaign. The launches were conducted from both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf from nine different cruisers, five destroyers, two battleships, and two nuclear powered attack submarines. The chief shooter was the destroyer USS Fife that in total had fired 58 missiles.

Some topics in this essay:
Air Force, Red Sea, Navy Marine, Desert Storm’s, Persian Gulf, Marine Corps, Saddam Hussien, Desert Storm, Saudi Arabia, Saddam’s Iraqi, navy marine, air campaign, red sea, saudi arabia, persian gulf, land attack, desert storm, tomahawk land attack, tomahawk land, navy marine corps, marine corps, attack missiles, land attack missiles, war desert storm, sea persian gulf,