The purpose of this paper to identify and analyze the historic failed mission of Operation: Eagle Claw. The mission failed due to the lack of communication and the lack of sharing knowledge between government agencies and military branches.
Eagle Claw failed for a variety of reasons, both during the planning and later during the execution. Before entering Iran, each of the government agencies worked independently with little to no cohesion amongst them and the mission was kept secret from key government and military agencies. After entering Iran, there was weather and mechanical problems accompanied by an uncoordinated evacuation plan. The problems that occurred before entering Iran and after were caused by lack of use of intelligence that was available. This paper presents a summary of the challenges faced and how available intelligence would have alleviated them.
Background
Operation: Eagle Claw was implemented on April 24, 1980, just 5 months after an …show more content…
Some helicopters had to divert from the original flight plan, the fixed wing contingent had flown into a phenomenon referred to as a “haboob”, which is a collection of fine dust particles that obscures visual capabilities.
The following was stated in The Atlantic (2006):
It was just a desert curiosity, nothing that could cause a problem for the planes. But Air Force Colonel James H. Kyle, whose responsibility included all airborne aspects of the mission, knew that the haboob would be trouble for a helicopter. He had noticed that the temperature inside the plane went up significantly when they passed through the first haboob.
Due to this weather condition that the flight team was never briefed on, even though there was prior knowledge of it, they were forced to change their flight plans last minute which caused many
Eagle Claw failed for a variety of reasons, both during the planning and later during the execution. Before entering Iran, each of the government agencies worked independently with little to no cohesion amongst them and the mission was kept secret from key government and military agencies. After entering Iran, there was weather and mechanical problems accompanied by an uncoordinated evacuation plan. The problems that occurred before entering Iran and after were caused by lack of use of intelligence that was available. This paper presents a summary of the challenges faced and how available intelligence would have alleviated them.
Background
Operation: Eagle Claw was implemented on April 24, 1980, just 5 months after an …show more content…
Some helicopters had to divert from the original flight plan, the fixed wing contingent had flown into a phenomenon referred to as a “haboob”, which is a collection of fine dust particles that obscures visual capabilities.
The following was stated in The Atlantic (2006):
It was just a desert curiosity, nothing that could cause a problem for the planes. But Air Force Colonel James H. Kyle, whose responsibility included all airborne aspects of the mission, knew that the haboob would be trouble for a helicopter. He had noticed that the temperature inside the plane went up significantly when they passed through the first haboob.
Due to this weather condition that the flight team was never briefed on, even though there was prior knowledge of it, they were forced to change their flight plans last minute which caused many