波斯湾战机F15 F117第 4 课

Much of this was in place because of a long-standing agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia 其中大部分设施的存在是因为美沙之间一项 长期性的合约沙乌地
Since 1983 the Saudis have been building emergency airports across their country for use in case the Gulf was threatened by an aggressor自1983年来便在全国普建紧急跑道以备波湾区遭外力攻击时之用

But despite this advantage 撇开此一优势之外
some feared that planes such as the F-15 were simply too complex to survive the pressure of a round-the-clock war 某些人担心F15的结构 太过于复杂而经不起此一全天候 战斗的压力

Yeah. There is a piece of safety wire that ah, showed up on the X-rays So we have to... 没错，在X光下看到一段 安全线路，所以要…

In fact, just the opposite proved true 事实上正好相反
The number of airplanes over ready to fly at any given time actually increased during the War随着战争的进行，待命起飞 的机数不断增加
F-15s went from an eighty-five percent peacetime mission-capable rate to a wartime average of ninety-four percent F15由平时的85%的 出机率上升到战时的94%

The hard work of flight crews made it possible for pilots to fly constant defensive counter air patrols along the border of Saudi Arabia and Iraq 飞行小组的辛劳，使飞行员得以沿着沙伊边界进行持续的反空巡逻任务
The goal was to test Iraq's air defenses 其目标在于测试伊拉克的 空防能力
and the readiness of Iraqi pilots 以及飞行员的应变能力

Defensive counter air is basically flying combat air patrols ah, orbits south of the border so that on one leg, the hot leg防卫性反空飞行任务基本上是做空中战斗飞行 巡逻在边界南部绕行
you are looking into Iraq to see if they have got anybody taking off to come south to... ah to do an invasion使飞行员在一段距离内监视伊拉克是否有 向南攻击的情形
And, ah, we flew those missions for the five months waiting 巡逻任务为期五个月
about four and a half to six hours at a pop 一趟大约4个半小时到 六小时
because any time they would fly we would, ah 只要他们一出机 我们就加以锁定
we would lock them up They knew we were up there 他们也知道我们在上空
And, ah, and they were getting, ah that radar spike that told them that the F-15s were looking at them and if they wanted to try anything they were welcome to come south 他们由雷达中得知F15在 监视他们只要他们敢轻举妄动 随时欢迎南下

January 17 th, 1991. In the early hours of the morning six hundred sixty-eight aircraft and their pilots gear up for the first air attack on Iraq and occupied Kuwait1991年1月17日668架飞机于凌晨时分在伊拉克和科威特占领区 待命做首度空中攻击