‘Major Damage’ Reported on All Libyan Targets

Displaying fresh aerial reconnaissance photographs and dramatic videotapes shot by the first U.S. warplane to bomb the Tripoli barracks where Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s headquarters are situated, the Pentagon said Thursday that “major damage” was inflicted on all five targets in the raid.

Pentagon officials, who offered the most extensive details to date on Tuesday’s 11-minute attack, said their evidence shows that Operation El Dorado Canyon was a nearly flawless mission conducted in such secrecy--and so rehearsed--that the Libyans detected the arrival of the aerial armada only minutes before it was overhead and the bombs were falling.

One source, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, said the Libyan military apparently received no warning from the Soviet Union, although Soviet ships were close enough to the U.S. fleet to detect bomb-laden aircraft leaving Navy carriers as much as 1 hour, 40 minutes before the planes reached their targets in Benghazi.

Rejected One Target

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger told a group of journalists at a breakfast Thursday that military planners had studied Kadafi’s intelligence headquarters as a possible target and rejected it because it was considered too close to the French Embassy. The embassy was damaged during the raid, in which one Air Force F-111 fighter-bomber was lost.

Weinberger said the damage could have been caused by Libyan anti-aircraft fire, or by a “hung” bomb that did not drop on time from an F-111. Others have speculated that the missing F-111 was struck over Tripoli and jettisoned its bombs in an effort to fly with a lighter load to the sea.

The Pentagon pieced together its data from a variety of sources, including aerial photographs, pilots’ reports and videotapes shot from cameras placed in weapons-guidance pods attached to the bellies of F-111s that struck Tripoli while Navy A-6 attack planes hit Benghazi. The aerial reconnaissance came from either SR-71 Blackbird spy planes, which fly at altitudes of 90,000 feet, or from satellites in orbits at least 100 miles above the Earth.

“All bombs on target and three to five IL-76 destroyed,” a pilot said in an initial report, according to Pentagon spokesman Robert B. Sims.

Videotape of Bombing

Indeed, one videotape shows nine out of an F-111’s 11 or 12 500-pound gravity bombs falling away from less than 500 feet toward the Soviet-built four-engine jet transports parked at the military side of the Tripoli International Airport. Within seconds, as the F-111 swings away and accelerates from the 600 m.p.h. or more it was traveling when it dropped its ordnance, explosions can be seen and what appears to be an airplane turns upside down on the ground.

In another sequence, the cross-hairs of a laser-assisted targeting device can be seen aiming at the Aziziya Barracks in southern Tripoli. Then the plane drops four 2,000-pound precision-guided bombs, in a raid that the Libyans have claimed killed Kadafi’s 15-month-old adopted daughter. A tent described as Kadafi’s headquarters in a barracks courtyard can be seen within the picture, but not under the cross-hairs.

The Reagan Administration has said the barracks is a command and control center for Libyan-sponsored terrorism.

All told, the attacks are now credited with destroying or damaging at least four Soviet-supplied MIG-23 fighters, three MI-8 helicopters, one F-27 propeller-driven transport--all at Baninah airfield, which was struck by the Navy aircraft--and the jet transports in Tripoli, Sims said. Another Pentagon official said scorch marks on the ground indicate as many as 12 MIGs may have been damaged.

Buildings Damaged

In addition, Sims said, “there was major damage to a range of buildings and support facilities in all five of the target areas,” including the Benghazi army barracks that is believed to be an alternate terrorist command post.

However, he described damage at Sidi Bilal, said to be a training center for Libyan naval commandos, as “less extensive.”

‘Near-Flawless Operation’

“This was . . . a near-flawless professional operation under extremely difficult circumstances--the middle of the night, long distance from bases, which were fixed bases in the United Kingdom, bases at sea in the Mediterranean,” Sims said. The Pentagon acknowledged, however, that seven of the strike airplanes were forced to abort their missions, following strict rules designed to reduce risk to non-targeted areas. Any pilot detecting a malfunction in the bomb targeting systems or unable to locate a pre-determined target precisely was under orders not to drop his bombs.

The Pentagon revised downward to 83 the number of airplanes it said were involved in the operation.

They were 28 KC-10 and KC-135 tankers, launched from British Royal Air Force bases in Fairford and Mildenhall; five EF-111 electronic counter-measure aircraft to jam and “spoof” Libyan communications and electronic defenses, launched from the RAF base at Heyford; 24 F-111F fighter-bombers, launched from the RAF at Lakenheath; 14 A-6E ground-attack aircraft, launched from the carriers America and Coral Sea; six A-7 attack aircraft launched from the America and six F/A-18 fighters, launched from the Coral Sea. The A-7s and F/A-18s fired missiles to counter the Libyan surface-to-air missile threat.

Of these airplanes, two EF-111s returned to Britain at the first refueling point, along with six F-111s, which were considered spares. Of the 18 that continued the mission, 13 reached Libya and five flights were aborted for undisclosed reasons. Two of the A-6s turned back, also for undisclosed reasons.

The mission began late Friday night or early Saturday morning when an undisclosed number of tankers left bases in the United States and flew to England. According to the Pentagon’s chronology, they left the British bases at 6:13 p.m. local time on Monday, 23 minutes ahead of the F-111s.

Refueled Six Times

The fighter-bombers were refueled four times on the 6-hour, 24-minute night flight to Tripoli, using small lights near the tanker’s refueling boom for guidance so they would not have to break the total radio silence under which they operated. Two refuelings were required for the flight back, when the planes--minus the bombs--were lighter and flew at more efficient altitudes and slower speeds.

The aircraft carriers began launching their attack and support planes at 12:20 a.m. local time in the Mediterranean. Six minutes before the attack, at 2 a.m. local time, the EF-111s, A-7s, and FA-18s began electronic jamming of Libyan radar.

Simultaneous Attacks

According to the chronology, the attacks began simultaneously at 2 a.m. Tuesday (4 p.m. PST Monday), and were completed 11 minutes later. Four minutes after the final attack, search forces were alerted that a plane may have been lost.

On Thursday, the Pentagon announced that the two-man crew of the missing F-111 was being designated killed in action.

Within 53 minutes of the first strike, all carrier aircraft were back on the decks of their vessels. The surviving F-111s returned to their British base 8 hours and 10 minutes after the raid began, with the exception of one that landed in Rota, Spain, with an overheated engine.