Irak

2002 · 162482 — London: DGIA Ministry of Defence 2002. First edition stretching from Baghdad to Basrah and showing all of Kuwait. The sheet was likely issued to RAF pilots in the run up to the Iraq War and is printed on rayon for ease of use and durability. These charts produced by the Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence Agency feature many warnings about flying within controlled airspace in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The RAF flew many missions over this region in the lead-up to the Second Gulf War and in Operation Telic. "The first documented intimations of UK involvement in the operation that became Telic can be traced to March 2002. In May the Chief of the Defence Staff CDS was advised of a potential RAF contribution to a future operation in Iraq comprising 88 fast jets and 38 support platforms - more aircraft than the RAF had deployed on a single operation since the First Gulf War and more in all probability than it will ever deploy again" Ritchie p. 5. A formal plan was drafted in August to overwhelm Hussein's government through multiple co-ordinated fronts of which the RAF's role was to eradicate the enemy air force destroy equipment support ground forces and strike important targets to shock the Iraqi people. According to the key there was another sheet issued charting northern Iraq. Single sheet of rayon 912 x 1300 mm colour map with key on recto and verso. Sometime folded and thinning along lines: a near-fine copy. Sebastian Ritchie "The Royal Air Force in Operation Telic: Offensive Air Power March-April 2003" 2021. unknown