European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 24, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday april 24, 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 3weapons shortcomings detailed Washington apr weapons such As the Patriot missile and the stealth fighter heralded for their showing in the persian Gulf War performed far below the military a glowing assessment experts told Congress on monday. Meanwhile the congressional research service issued a report on the persian Gulf War that found the Patriot missile provided Only a modest anti tactical ballistic missile  the Agency urged the Pentagon to consider weapons Superior to the Patriot to thwart the proliferation of ballistic missiles. In testimony before the House armed services committee Pierre Sprey a special aide to the assistant do sense Secretary for systems analysis during the Johnson and Nixon administrations cast aspersions on the Patriot and Tomahawk missiles the stealth fighter and the av-8b harrier Jet the air forces a-10 tactical bomber however performed far better than the service expected Sprey and other witnesses told the committee. The a-10 accounted for 1,000 of the 1,700 tank kills claimed during the air Campaign although Only 144 of the 1,800 combat aircraft were flown the committee was told. A a a. U s. Interviews with iraqi prisoners of War found that the a-10 was the aircraft they most feared Sprey said,94th engr in to by Randy Pruitt a. A staff writer Darmstadt Germany a members of the 94th engr in who were disappointed at missing the action in saudi Arabia have no reason to complain any longer.  soon be heading to Iraq. About 600 men and women from the Darmstadt based unit Are going to the area As part of a multinational Force building communities for 700,000 kurdish refugees said it. Col. Butch Ferguson the battalion s commander. I v the refugees will live primarily in tents and the engineers will construct sanitation and medical facilities roads and airstrips. The Effort will be coordinated by the 18th engr brigade from Karlsruhe and operations will be entered m Northern Iraq near the town of Zakhoo. A a a. A a a. A this is the first time the United nations or anybody has placed the Sanctity of human life above the integrity of National boundaries a Ferguson said. A your people Are pumped up. They re ready to  maj. Mike Maloney the battalions operations officer said 140 members of co b were on standby tuesday waiting for planes to transport them along with trucks excavators Small tractors and other equipment to Turkey. A. A v / a bulldozers and other Large Earth moving machinery were being prepared tuesday for rail shipment to port adding a the a-10 came stayed and searched them  however he questioned the effectiveness of the Patriot and other w weapons. A the country has been poorly served by the shamelessly doctored statistics and hand selected video clips of isolated successes that were pumped out to the Media during the War in order to influence postwar budget decisions a Sprey said. Citing uncensored information that emerged after disagreements Between israeli and . Officials Sprey said very few of the intercepted scud warheads were stopped from hitting the ground and exploding the army has said that the Patriot successfully intercepted 45 of 47 scud missiles. Sprey said recent figures indicate that israeli casualties per scud fired increased by 80 percent after the patriots were deployed. His testimony came less than a week after Theodore Postol of the Massachusetts Institute of technology said damage from scud missiles May have tripled after the United states deployed patriots to intercept the iraqi missiles. But the professor also acknowledged that his assessment was purely speculative. Sprey also told the committee that the Tomahawk cruise missile was prone to straying off course and that several observers saw tomahawks crash into apartment buildings and in one instance a swimming Pool. The f-117 stealth fighter meanwhile was not invisible to radar and the planes experienced fuel problems Sprey said based on reports from pilots and others in the Region. A a a six of the 60 av-8b harrier jets were lost raising questions about the aircraft a survivability he said. A none of what in be said is meant to definitely Settle what did and did not work a Sprey told the committee in urging an Independent review of the weapons performances. Bill Perry a former undersecretary of defense for research and engineering also faulted the Patriot contending that the missile is incapable of dealing with countermeasures including inadvertent ones such As the scud missile breaking up in flight the congressional research service in a report on the implications of operation desert shield and desert storm for the future military said the Patriot performed fairly Well against the unsophisticated single warhead scud. ? a the Patriot intercepts however occurred at Short Range causing debris to fall on targets the Patriot was deployed to protect the Agency said. In addition it said untouched scud warheads broke through the defense when the Patriot hit the missiles fuel tank instead of its  facilities in Bromer Haven where they will be loaded aboard ships. Arrival at the turkish port of Iskenderun is expected to take from one to two weeks Maloney said american dutch italian French and British engineering units will work together to set up As Many As 35 communities of 20,000 refugees each. A we Haven to done anything like this before a he said a this is an outstanding  Ferguson agreed a it is our biggest Mission the biggest Challenge is deployment. The stuff Well be facing on the ground is routine simple when compared to what we be done in Germany.�?�. Ferguson said the battalion which will be deployed for 30 to 45 Days plans to use kurdish labor whenever fios sible. A a it a important to get them to buy into the so ution so they re willing to live there a he said. A if we have them involved in the construction they re going to build them the Way they want them Quot housing the huge kurdish population presents its own special problems Ferguson said. A a they re not tribal they re Cian oriented. All of the designs take that into account by giving each family unit their own area a a Clear space they use As a common  clusters of clan areas will be tied into sub communities he said. Each group of sub communities will have its own logistics Supply and administration centers. Maloney said members of the battalion Are looking Forward to its task. A a we be made it very Clear to them what a happening to the people who Are there the kurd the conditions they re living under a Ferguson said. A basically they re clinging to  to Date 7,363 . Military personnel have deployed to operation provide Comfort a spokesman at european come Headquarters in Stuttgart said tuesday. Recent departures include 24 members of the 159th medical co air ambulance who flew six Black Hawk helicopters from Darmstadt to Turkey on monday. An additional 20 support personnel from the 159th left tuesday by a c-141 cargo plane. About 100 7th medical come members Are already in or Are in route to Turkey and the Northern iraqi area. Medical supplies for the humanitarian Aid Mission Are being sent from the medical Materiel Center in Parma sons. It. Col. Duane Jackson of the commands logistics staff said 340 tons of supplies ranging from bandages to water have already been sent. As of monday night 4,732 tons of supplies have been airlifted to the refugees in 875 missions by air planes and helicopters the european come said tuesday. In addition 1,600 tons of cargo was loaded monday on 120 locally contracted trucks at in Ciurlik a Turkey. The military sea lift come ship Noble Star was due to arrive it the turkish port of Mersin on tuesday with 3,866 tons of bulk rations eight additional ships Are in route to Turkey with 20,290 tons of Relief  Camp . Marines pitch tents at a Camp near Zakhoo Iraq one of Many being set up along the iraqi turkish Bor to House kurdish refugees now in Turkey the Camp is Der for thousands of refugees fleeing iraqi forces.236th medical co begins redeploying to Germany Heidelberg Germany a a about one fourth of the 236th medical co air ambulance soldiers who deployed to saudi Arabia last year returned to Germany on tuesday morning with six of their Black Hawk helicopters in a c-5 transport plane. The 236th, which has its Headquarters in land Stuhl deployed in Early december its 29 personnel Are the first 7th medical come medical evacuation troops to return. The 45th medical co air ambulance deployed in August and is still in the persian Gulf Region. About 200 medical personnel who augmented Vii corps medical units returned to Germany on monday night bringing to 300 the total number of personnel from the command who have redeployed to  corps troops return Stuttgart West Germany about 1,000 Vii corps troops returned from the persian Gulf on three flights monday to the Stuttgart army Airfield according to corps spokeswoman Hilde Gard Citrone the soldiers constitute parts of the corps he co he co 1st army div 11th aviation brigade 2nd corps support come 209th military intelligence brigade 128th combat support Hospital and the 84th army band