NEWTOWN, Conn.- Targeting pods aresensors that to enableaircraft to discharge air-to-groundweaponsatasafedistancefromanti-aircraftartilleryandmanysurface-to-airmissiles.
Hussein launched a policy of challenging enforcement of those zones in late 1998, deploying surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery against the aircraft.
When the Air Force became independent from the Army in 1947, the latter service retained lead responsibility for ground-based air defenses which at the time consisted primarily of anti-aircraft artillery.