Operation Northern Watch (ONW) was the Combined Task Force (CTF) charged with enforcing the no-fly zone north of the 36th parallel in Iraq and monitoring Iraqi compliance with UN Security Council resolutions 678, 687, and 688. (USAF photos)

Operation Northern Watch began Jan. 1, 1997, and succeeded another coalition effort, Operation Provide Comfort, which began in April 1991 and delivered more than 12,400 tons of food, supplies, medical aid and fuel to more than a million Kurdish refugees along the Turkish and Iraqi border. Operation Northern Watch ended May 1, 2004.

United Kingdom, Turkish and French airmen rotated through Incirlik Air Base to support the operations. The last Operation Northern Watch combat patrol was flown on March 17 prior to the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  

Both the British RAF and US Air Force flew operational missions from Incirlik AFB in Turkey. US AF Aircraft included the F-15E and F-16CJ, the latter armed with the AGM-88 ("AGM" stands for air-to-ground missile.") High Speed Antiradiation Missile (HARM).  The HARM's on-board guidance system locks on to the radar signal, emitted by a ground radar system to guide surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to their airborne targets, to guide the missile to the ground-based radar site.

Thanks to Dr Robert Kane, USAF historian, for correcting my earlier mistakes.

US Air Force Photos

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