Defense Department News Briefing

Lieutenant General Kelly and Captain Herrington spoke to reporters on events in the war in the Persian Gulf. Lt. Gen. Kelly detailed the U.S. armed forces military efforts, including over 10,000 sorties and the interception of six Iraqi SCUD missiles over Saudi Arabia and Israel. The weather over Iraq and Kuwait was cloudy during the previous two days, bothering but not halting the U.S. and allied air strike over Iraq by creating difficulty in targeting and making bomb damage assessments. In an answer to a reporter’s question, Lt. General Kelly said the oft-used 80 percent success rate of air sorties means that 80 percent of the planes in the air with bombs dropped their bomb on a target, not that 80 percent of targets were hit. Mr. Williams explained the Pentagon had “fogged up” the 80 percent figure, and stated that the 80 percent figure was a “rough guesstimate” of the number of combat aircraft that lifted off, dropped a bomb, and returned. Thus the 80 percent figure is applicable o close