1990

Phillips Lab personnel engaged during Gulf War

During the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, in what was known as Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the Lab formed many quick-response teams to provide direct and immediate support within a few days of President George Bush's decision to rescue Kuwait from occupying Iraqi troops. Phillips Laboratory directorates fashioned technologies in 10 specific areas for deployment and operational use in the Gulf theater. They included: methods to attack and destroy deeply buried bunkers using off-the-shelf equipment; investigating fuel-air explosives for use as offensive weapons against large troop formations; means by which to extinguish oil well fires quickly with the precision application of aircraft ordinance; exploitation of foreign materiel; a way to detect the use of chemical munitions by means of remote sensing; assessing battle damage for selected structures; creating a field guide for communications officers that outlined ionospheric disturbances likely to disrupt battlefield communications; and making thermal signature predictions for tanks against sand backgrounds.