THE FLIGHT On 17 January 1991, more than 1,100 USAF aircraft and coalition partners struck Baghdad and targets across Iraq and Kuwait. F-117 Nighthawks, invisible to Iraqi radar, opened holes in the integrated air defense system. Tomahawk cruise missiles and precision-guided munitions struck command bunkers and communications nodes. The coalition flew roughly 40,000 air-to-ground sorties and 50,000 support sorties. By historical standards, the intensity was staggering: the daily bomb tonnage was equivalent to 85 percent of the average daily tonnage dropped on Germany and Japan in World War II. Air superiority was achieved within days. When the ground offensive began on 24 February, Iraqi forces were demoralized, blinded, and cut off. The ground war lasted one hundred hours. Kuwait was liberated, and the coalition had proven that air power could win decisively, swiftly, and with minimal losses.