波斯湾战机F15 F117第 7 课

By the ninth day of War, Iraq's airfields were in ruins 战争进行到第九日时伊拉克的跑道已全毁
Iraqi Air Force apparently decided the only way to survive was to run 伊拉克空军只有逃之夭夭以求存
Flights of Iraqi fighters and bombers began streaking towards Iran 伊拉克的战斗机和轰炸机 开始往伊朗方向逃逸
Some of the planes were shot down by F-15s 有些遭到F15的击落
Some ran out of fuel 有些则油料耗尽
But about one hundred fifty made it to safety 大约有150架安全逃出

You know, Iraq really had a good Air Force 伊拉克的空军实力不错
Ah, it was well-equipped ah, MiG-29s, Mirages It was well-trained 米格29，幻象都算优异 机种，受到良好的训练
I have met Iraqi pilots and they are good 我见过伊拉克飞行员 他们很好
Ah, these guys are not slouches 他们并不算差劲
Ah, they pulled off some fantastic missions in the Iran/Iraq War ah, the, ah, strike against the, ah Iranian nuclear, ah, power plants?在两伊战争期间表现优异曾攻击过伊朗核子动力厂

The strike against ah, Cartage Islands they carried out也从事过… 攻击过卡吉岛 And, ah, but their problem their weakness was they were very centrally controlled and they were tied to their ground control 可是他们的问题，他们的 弱点是…受制于总部和地面管制中心
So when the Iraqis took off, ah 因此当伊拉克起飞时
many times they were blind because we took out the communications We took out the radar sights往往因为我们阻断了他们的 通讯雷达，而造成他们的盲飞
And then once we got them in the air they were, ah 因此一旦进入空战时
more easily engaged and shot down 他们更容易遭到击落

But the other thing is because we made it look easy do not think it was easy 另一点是…我方以优游 之态却严阵以待
Ah, those air-to-air engagements were a struggle and 几场空对空激战相当艰苦
ah, our guys risked it all But they pulled it off 我方的人员甘冒一切风险 却成功达成任务

Perhaps the greatest mistake made by Coalition planners before the Gulf War began 或许联合飞行战略规划员 最大的失误在于
was underestimating the threat posed by Iraq's Scud ballistic missiles 低估了伊拉克Scud飞弹所带来的威胁
Militarily, Scuds were insignificant Sucd飞弹在军事上可谓无足轻重
And But politically, Scud attacks on Israel and Saudi Arabia could have torn the Coalition apart 但在政治上，它对以色列和沙乌地阿拉伯的攻击极可能导致联军的分崩离析

The political importance of hunting down the Scuds was so great 由于猎杀Scad飞弹具有 极大的政治意义
that the best aircraft on hand was assigned to the task 只有派出最优异的机种担任此一任务
That plane was the brand new F-15E fighter bomber 入选的便是全新出厂的 F15E战斗轰炸机

Though technically still in testing F15E虽然仍处于试飞 阶段
F-15Es were rushed into combat when the Gulf War erupted 却因为波湾战争的爆发 而投入战场
Forty-eight were deployed to Saudi Arabia 48架被布署于沙乌地 阿拉伯区
The reason for this haste was 造成此一仓促决定的原因
that the E was simply too powerful a plane not to use 是F15E是当时威力最强 的机种
A dual-role fighter F15E是一种双重角色的 战斗机
the F-15E has the air-to-air combat capability of the F-15C 具有F15C的空对空战斗 能力
plus the ability to fly night bombing missions in bad weather at altitudes as low as two hundred feet 更兼具在2百尺低空于天候 恶劣时进行夜间轰炸任务的能力
while carrying twenty-four thousand five hundred pounds of ordnance 同时可以承载24500磅的武器