Although Saudi Arabia attaches great importance to Khafji, the number of Arab coalition forces actually stationed in the small city of Khafji is very small. The reason is simply that it is too close to the border, is under direct attack from Iraqi artillery, and is also shrouded in the cloud that the Iraqi army may attack at any time. Therefore, the headquarters and main force of the Arab coalition are located south of Khafji. Only part of the 2nd Task Force of the Saudi National Guard is stationed locally, mainly composed of infantry, with only a small number of military jeeps equipped with recoilless guns. The enemy they faced was composed of a mechanized infantry battalion and a reinforced tank company, equipped with about 40 BNP-IHTB infantry fighting vehicles and 2 NHT106 Rhino-1 tanks.
This batch of Rhino 1 tanks was sold to Iraq five years ago by Norinco. Over the past few years, about 500 Rhino 1 tanks have been sold to Iraq successively. This batch of Rhino tanks is also the most advanced one currently in service in the Iraqi army. Tanked. During the Iran-Iraq war, the Rhino 1 tank achieved absolute suppression of the Iranian army, which also made Iran very dissatisfied. The Iraqi army lost about a hundred Rhino 1 tanks during the war. Now the Iraqi army still has many tanks. There are over 400 Rhino 1s in service.
Saddam also gave these Rhino 1-type equipment to his most trusted troops to protect his own security. However, the Republican Guard in Kuwait actually does not have many units equipped with such tanks. The main force is still second-class tanks such as T2 and Type 6. generation tanks. To be precise, the NHT106 is a quasi-third-generation tank, which is better than the second-generation tank. It can also compete with the early model Nl of the US military. Even pLAl attaches great importance to the Iraqi NHT106 tank, although it is not as good as the Rhino 11. Few, but enough to be threatening.
Although the PL Army's Huoshaoyun-class reconnaissance airship notified the Arab coalition forces of the Iraqi army's movements in advance, the response speed of the Arab coalition forces was unexpectedly slow. The commander of this force, General Khalid, did not even unify himself. The opinions of military leaders from other countries in the army led to the missed opportunity to support the National Guard stationed in Khafji.
The Iraqi side was also really cunning. When approaching the Saudi position north of Khafji, they turned the turret of the tank sideways to show no hostility and pretended to be surrendering troops. This caused a period of confusion in the Saudi National Guard, but it soon The turret of the Kuai Rhino 1 tank turned around again, and then launched a surprise attack on the Saudi troops stationed in the northern position.
The weak Saudi National Guard did not stay for long. They immediately passed the news of the attack to General Khalid in the rear. At the same time, they fought and retreated, and finally withdrew from Khafji. Without the Saudi garrison, the Iraqis successfully occupied the small town.
As soon as the Iraqis captured Khafji, the U.S. military's air power responded. Chinese fighter planes were covering the operation 80 kilometers away, so the U.S. military still had a relatively surplus of fighter planes to support the Arab coalition forces.
Several B18C fighter jets that took off from the nearby USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier were loaded with bombs and arrived in the sky over Khafji. The Iraqi army, which had not yet completely dealt with its situation, was continuously attacked by US carrier-based aircraft. The bombs launched by the Hornet destroyed several Iraqi armored vehicles and an NHT106 tank. However, after a brief panic, the Iraqi army used the buildings in the small town to effectively hide, making it difficult for the Hornet fleet to carry out effective operations. The blow was. Those Iraqi soldiers occupied low-rise buildings and were scattered. Fighters could not identify the enemies in those buildings, so the US military's plan to disintegrate the Iraqi army with air strikes alone was disillusioned.
The belated arrival of the multinational force's aviation force was mainly related to the timing. This evening, the multinational force once again launched a wave of relatively large-scale air strikes against Iraq, including the air forces of the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Italy, Saudi Arabia and other countries. Hundreds of fighter jets were flown to attack military and civilian targets in Iraq. This also meant that when Iraq suddenly attacked, most of the multinational force's fighter jets were on mission and could not be quickly mobilized to rescue Khafji's crisis.
General Khalid himself went to the town of Khafji to conduct reconnaissance. At the same time, he instructed a tank company of the Saudi Army's B Brigade and a tank company of the Qatar Battalion to meet him about 6 kilometers west of Khafji. After arriving at the outskirts of Khafji, Khalid found that the local Iraqi army only had two battalions and only 10 tanks, one of which had been destroyed by the US military. However, with the strength of his reconnaissance force, he was unable to launch a battle to recapture Khafji.
So General Khalid began to request air support from Prince Sultan, the commander-in-chief of the headquarters of the first theater in the eastern part of the battlefield (the Herab coalition theater, located east of the second theater in the east of the -10th Division).
In this war, the strength of the Saudi Air Force is actually not inferior to that of the United States and China, and is stronger than the fleets sent by the British and French armies. This is mainly due to the two arms trade deals Prince Sultan himself made with China. The Saudi Air Force has 20 Xiaolong and 20 Tian BF9 fighters. Both fighters have multi-purpose capabilities and can be used for air superiority and ground targeting. The only disadvantage is that Saudi Arabia really does not have that many pilots to fly these fighters.
It is precisely because of the lack of pilots who can fly these advanced fighter jets that Saudi Arabia has such an empty space.The Air Force has a large equipment reserve, but it can only use a little more than half of the aircraft in this reserve. The Saudi fighter planes that can be put into combat normally are only about 20 Fl Xiaolong and 100 Tian B Fei Yunbao, but they are considered a considerable force no matter how you look at them.
General Khalid was ambitious. After he saw the ineffectiveness of the US military's air strikes, he firmly believed that he could level the entire small town of Khafji with the help of the Saudi Air Force and a little help from the Chinese Air Force, thus preventing them from being destroyed. The dangers of being dragged into street fighting and urban warfare can cause huge casualties.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries do not want to involve too many Chinese or American ground forces in this battle. They hope to use their own country's army to defeat the Iraqi army in a dignified manner, and then establish the image of the Arab coalition in this way. At the same time It also improves the morale of the Arab coalition.
Therefore, General Khalid requested air power support from the Chinese Air Force, but did not request ground support from the nearby Chinese Army-10 Division. This is definitely not a smart choice, because if the fully-heavy and powerful -10th Division can be divided to support the Arab coalition forces, the battle will become much easier. However, there are various little ideas in the coalition forces, so in fact, the optimal allocation of resources does not exist.
In order to support the Saudi operation, the Chinese Air Force launched an entire J-9 Shadow Leopard Aviation Regiment (24 aircraft) and a H-Ares bomber bombing squadron) to participate in this battle. Correspondingly, Saudi Arabia also dispatched 6 Fl Xiaolong fighters and Jiatian B fighter bombers and began to conduct the most terrifying aerial attacks on the Iraqi troops stationed in Khafji and the Iraqi troops gathering in Kuwait.
The fighters used by both sides are all Chinese-made fighters, and there are no problems with weapons and information communication. Therefore, it is relatively more convenient than Chinese fighters and American fighters to cooperate with each other.
General Khalid judged that the main purpose of launching air strikes was to interdict the battlefield. After the Iraqi army learned that it had successfully captured Khafji, it began to assemble two divisions of the Third Army of the Republican Guard in Kuwait. Other related troops also There is a sudden movement, and Khafji may be reinforced at any time. The current defenders of Khafji are only two battalions. They were taught a lesson by the US military once before and lost part of them. Although retaking Khafji may face harsh street fighting, it will not be particularly difficult. But if the two divisions of the Iraqi army are allowed to follow the highway to Khafji, then the price paid by the Arab coalition to recapture Khafji will be extremely high.
Before the air raid was launched, there was another episode. On the roof of a low-rise building in Khafji, two reconnaissance groups composed of 11 U.S. Marines were surrounded by the Iraqi army. This kind of team of the US Marine Corps comes from the air-sea artillery liaison company. Its main task is to identify the targets of the Iraqi army and then provide target guidance to other fire units, such as fighter aircraft, naval guns and ground force artillery. Similar work is also available in PLA, but now PLA is more accustomed to using the safer Beidou system or drone positioning methods, and is still more cautious about sending guidance teams into Longtan Tiger's Den.
The guidance team of the U.S. Marine Corps is equipped with telescopes, night vision devices, laser positioning devices, and secure radios to communicate with the headquarters. Each operation generally only lasts 48 hours, but once in place, their vehicles arrive at the mission site. will leave, so they cannot return unless they come to pick them up. No one expected that the Iraqis would rashly send troops. The two groups did not consider that the Iraqis would send troops to occupy Khafji before taking action. When other troops assisting here, including the Saudi Marine Corps, withdrew from Khafji, the two guidance groups of the air and sea artillery liaison company were cut off by the rapidly advancing Iraqi army.
In order to rescue the two guidance groups, the multinational force organized a surprise attack before the air strike. The commando team that performed the rescue mission consisted of 1 company of the 2nd Brigade of the Saudi National Guard and 1 company of the B Brigade of the Royal Saudi Army. Composed of two companies, the former is the assault force and the latter is the reserve force.
The Saudi army unexpectedly attacked the area south of Khafji. However, the Iraqi army, which only had two battalions, had not yet set up a defense line. Therefore, the Saudi army equipped with multi-purpose infantry vehicles broke into the area and two US Marine groups were trapped. Buildings, this action was extremely fast, so that the Iraqi army did not have time to react much.
However, after relying on the high-speed multi-purpose infantry vehicle to rush into Khafji and rescue two US military groups, this infantry combat vehicle assault team ran into trouble. Two Iraqi NHT106 tanks appeared in front of them.