§ Mr. Martyn JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of Iraq's capability to use ballistic missile technology to target surface-to-air missiles. [4040]
§ Mr. HoonSince December 1998, the Iraqi integrated air defence system has been engaged in a systematic campaign to shoot down coalition aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones. There have been over 1,800 direct threats from a range of Iraqi air defence assets, including surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery. Coalition aircraft are authorised to respond in self-defence only against air defence targets, and have done so on some 270 occasions.
Over the past two and a half years, the Iraqis have evolved a range of novel tactics, aimed at maximising the threat to the coalition while minimising the risk of being targeted by a self-defence response. In particular, we assess that Iraqi surface-to-air missiles have been launched without the support of their fire control radars, in order to hide the position of the firing unit (thereby reducing its vulnerability).
Missiles launched in this way receive no guidance information during flight and are much less likely to hit a target in comparison to a conventionally guided missile. The corollary is that there is also an enhanced risk, as with Iraq's indiscriminate use of surface-to-surface rockets in this role, of damage to civilian facilities when the missiles return to earth. Although surface-to-air missiles operated in this way follow an unguided, ballistic trajectory, there is no evidence that Iraq has employed ballistic missile technology to guide these surface-to-air missiles.