Operation Desert Badger

Operation Desert Badger was a U.S. plan for response if a pilot was shot down while patrolling the Iraqi no-fly zones. It was designed to disrupt the Iraqis' ability to capture the pilot by attacking Saddam's command and control centers in downtown Baghdad. It included an escalating attack if a U.S. pilot were captured. This attack would allow for the President of the United States to order a small attack within four hours—either with U.S. aircraft or some fifty Tomahawk cruise missiles from Navy ships in the Persian Gulf.^[1] The plan was not devised as a way to invade Iraq, but was designed to be a larger attack than 1998's Operation Desert Fox.^[2]

References

1. CNN: Soledad O'Brien transcript
2. CNN: 31 March 2004 transcript