http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002580930,00.html
300,000 troops
to beat Saddam
RELATED STORIES
• Sun Says
By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON
Deputy Political Editor
A HUGE force of at least 300,000 Allied troops will be sent to Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, The Sun can reveal.
And the build-up to war will be launched by the Ministry of Defence TODAY.
Allied military chiefs have advised US President George Bush and PM Tony Blair that Iraqi forces must be swamped if Saddam is to be deposed.
They urged the preparations as US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced “problems” with Iraq’s arms declaration.
He added that early scepticism had proved “well founded”.
The MoD will hire ships to transport tanks to the Gulf. A Government figure said: “We’ll have a very firm footprint.”
Meanwhile, it was revealed the awe-inspiring fleet of US Navy ships preparing for a second Gulf War is so vast it would fill the space surrounded by the M25.
So many vessels have been dispatched by President Bush that if they all took up station together they would only just squeeze inside the motorway which encircles London.
The 125-mile orbital road covers an area measuring roughly 35 miles by 30 — equal to the amount of searoom needed by four massive aircraft carriers and their escorting battle groups of other ships.
The huge armada gathered as America gave the first public signal that it had found faults and discrepancies in the 12,000-page weapons declaration issued by Iraq.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, giving the first assessment of the Bush administration’s preliminary analysis, said in Washington: “We said at the very beginning that we approached it with scepticism.
“The information I have received so far is that that scepticism is well founded. There are problems with the declaration.”
The carriers dispatched by America include the 1,092ft nuclear-powered USS Nimitz — described as “95,000 tons of diplomacy”, standing 18 storeys high and with 4½ acres of flight deck.
With her are the 86,000-ton Kitty Hawk, the new Harry S Truman and the Abraham Lincoln — all within striking distance of Baghdad.
Another carrier, the USS Constellation, is heading to the Gulf to replace the Abraham Lincoln but BOTH may remain, boosting the number of carrier groups to five.
The British carrier HMS Ark Royal will steam to the region next month to join up with the US battle fleet along with her own flotilla of Royal Navy ships.
Supporting Ark Royal will be a destroyer, frigate and two T-class submarines armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Advances in military technology mean the carrier groups will be able to hit up to 700 targets a day with satellite and laser-guided missiles.
In the Gulf War they could manage only 162 targets a day.
Each carrier comes with an air wing of up to 85 warplanes including F-14 Tomcats and F-18 Hornets, attack helicopters, pilots, engineers and weapons teams.
They are supported by as many as ten destroyers, frigates and auxiliary ships carrying ammunition, fuel and other supplies.
On land, the US Army has already amassed at least 50,000 troops in the Gulf ready for action.
Pentagon commanders have decided on a minimum of 300,000 personnel for a full-scale war.
The British contingent is likely to be a maximum of around 15,000 strong.
But if Saddam does not give in the size of the overall force could rise to half a million — as many as were deployed in the Gulf War when the allies faced a standing Iraqi army.
Hundreds of American tanks have been assembling in Qatar while Apache and Blackhawk helicopters from the Sixth Cavalry have been deployed to Kuwait.
Three of the most famous divisions in the US Army, the 101st and 82nd Airborne and 10th Mountain, are gearing up to go to Iraq.
In Britain, the Ministry of Defence will today confirm that it has hired a fleet of cargo ships to move equipment out to the Gulf.
They will carry scores of Challenger II tanks from the 7th and 4th Armoured Brigades in Germany.
An “enhanced brigade” of thousands of men from those units will be called up.
Special forces troops from the SAS and SBS will be sent along with thousands of Royal Marines Commandos.
At least 600 Green Berets will be on board the assault ship HMS Ocean when she leaves as part of the Ark Royal battle group in early January.
Officially, the group is part of a firepower exercise due to begin in February.
But MoD chiefs admit the 683ft, 20,000-ton Ark Royal — which has the ship’s motto “Zeal Does Not Rest” — will spearhead any British force.
Prime Minister Tony Blair expects France will also commit a large number of troops, ships and planes.
Military sources say any war will begin with four or five nights of continual missile bombardment of key military sites.
The hope is that senior generals will turn on dictator Saddam and carry out a coup.