As the first Scud missiles slammed into Tel Aviv in the early morning hours of 17 January 1991, the world held its breath. Saddam Hussein had launched his expected terror campaign against Israel and the fate of the allied coalition hung on the Israeli response. Syria’s disapproval of any Israeli involvement in the war was already public record. In fact, support from any of the Arab states was uncertain if Israel joined the fight against their rogue brother.

The force which the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and other friendly powers had deployed in the desert was large. It...

To lay the basis for our study of aerial nuisance campaigns, we look first to understand the general nature of terrorism and the unique characteristics of aerial terror weapons. Since modern terrorism, fueled by mass communication, has exploded onto the world stage, a great deal of interest and much considered thought has sprung up on the subject. A glance at the recent works of some of the respected theorists in the field reveals remarkable agreement on a general definition of terrorism and its victims. A close look at air-delivered weapons reveals that they are uniquely qualified as tools of terror....

The First World War witnessed the introduction of aerial terror attacks. Germany, eager to carry the war beyond the stalemate in northern France, attacked England from the air. These attacks, lasting over 40 months, brought some of the terror of the trenches to England’s capital city. Having brought terror to English civilians at home, these German aircraft might be considered the first invaders of the English homeland since 1066.

The first German air attack against England occurred on Christmas Eve 1914, when a single small bomb was dropped by an aeroplane into a garden in Dover. Since Kaiser Wilhelm, one...

It is interesting to note that Britain, the target of aerial terror attacks during the First World War, built not only a strong air defense system during the interwar period, but also a long-range strategic bombing force capable of carrying similar attacks to future enemies. Germany, on the other hand, the strategic innovator from 1914 to 1918, saw only secondary merit in the results of the raids on London; its airpower development was concentrated instead on operational support for maneuvering ground forces. These perceptual differences would play themselves out in the skies above Europe during the Second World War.

The...

On 18 January 1991, Hussein reintroduced to the Western world the specter of terror from the sky. When the first few Scud missiles landed in and around Tel Aviv and the fate of the allied Gulf War coalition hung on the Israeli response, nuisance attacks by aerial terror weapons acquired a new status. This kind of raid, which in the past had been peripheral and diversionary, now might potentially have decisive strategic impact.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, aerial terror weapons had become vastly more powerful than those aimed at London in World War II. The Scuds lobbed at...

Examination of these three campaigns yields an obvious overall conclusion: When people are threatened by something new and sinister, there is a strong impulsive reaction to it. Adolescent flying machines, employed by the Germans against “Fortress London” in the First World War, frightened England into increased war production, redeployment of forces away from the front, and creation of the RAF. In the Second World War, Hitler’s vengeful employment of sinister, unmanned weapons against a populace that had weathered an extended campaign of terror from manned bombers produced another reallocation of forces and a significant redirection of military operations. In the...

Hussein’s Scud attacks on Israel provoked international consternation and, although they were militarily insignificant, appeared capable of toppling the allied coalition. Throughout the twentieth century, aerial bombardment alone had not proven itself decisive; yet, Hussein’s missile campaign stood on that very threshold. The remarkably unbalanced relationship between Iraq’s mediocre missiles and the coalition’s intense reactions to them inspired this investigation.

Aerial terror bombing is a modern form of terrorism, and it is the aim of terrorism to create intense fear that will have an impact on national leaders. Regardless of subtle differences between terror bombing and other forms of terrorism,...