Soviets Provide U.S. Intelligence on Iraq Military

The Soviet Union has handed over valuable intelligence information that may have helped the allies hold down expected casualties in the air war with Iraq, a U.S. military source said Saturday.

The senior military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is “very pleased” with details the Soviets have provided about Iraq’s arsenal, including its weapons and its air defense system. The Soviet Union was for years Iraq’s major military supplier.

Details of what the Soviets turned over to the United States were contained in a story published in Saturday’s Philadelphia Inquirer.

An Air Force general, who was not identified by the newspaper, said the information has enabled the U.S. and allied fighter pilots to counter Iraqi air defenses by adjusting electronic countermeasures on the aircraft.

Knowing the frequencies of Iraq’s air defense radars is like a motorist having a sophisticated radar detector, the general said.

The Soviet-supplied details may be one reason the allied air casualty rate is not as high as some had projected.

Estimates provided to the House Armed Services Committee before the Persian Gulf War started Jan. 17 projected a loss of 70 to 80 aircraft a week, assuming 2,000 sorties a day.

So far, 22 allied planes have been lost, 18 of them in combat. The allies have averaged 2,000 sorties on many days.

In Moscow last September, Vladimir Kryuchkov, the head of the KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency, said in an interview that Moscow would be willing to help the CIA with military intelligence on Iraq.