U-2 surveillance photos of SCUD launchers
Iraq used SCUD missiles buried in its far western deserts to launch strikes on Israel in the closing days of the Gulf War. Many experts regarded the strikes as a political and military move intended to draw Israel into the fighting, thus splintering the 1991 coalition that drove Iraq from Kuwait.
The U.S. government later conceded that despite its advanced surveillance technology and "smart" weapons, western forces had failed to locate or destroy any mobile SCUD launchers during the 1991 conflict.
