‘Only Trump and the US could have pulled off this audacious rescue mission’ | World | News

No other country could have pulled off a rescue operation of this magnitude, complexity and danger.

The first rescue was relatively straightforward, with emphasis on the word relatively, because every such mission in enemy territory is highly dangerous, for both the downed airmen and those trying to save them.

The pilot was brought out in just a few hours, with designated US search and rescue forces already in the area standing by to react.

For his crewman, a colonel, it was a different story; he had landed separately from the pilot and was harder to get to. I have been involved in hostage rescue operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and although the scenarios were different, all such endeavours share two hugely demanding challenges: precise location of the subject and time.

This was very much a race against time. As every minute ticked by, the likelihood of the enemy reaching him before the Americans increased exponentially. Once the Iranians knew they potentially had a US pilot in their clutches, they went all out to get their hands on him, crashing out military forces and militias and even mobilising local civilians with the promise of a bounty.

No doubt the Americans planned to retrieve their man by force had the Iranians got to him first but that would have been an even more hazardous mission.

To minimise the likelihood of that, the Americans had immediately thrown into place several different operational tracks at the same time, all pre-prepared for this eventuality. In that they were aided by the Israelis, both in intelligence and firepower.

Sophisticated deception was mounted against the Iranians to throw them off the track while obscuring their own rescue plans. Concurrently they put into action the most advanced geo-location tools known to man, including cyber and space capability. The challenge of maintaining their fix on the colonel as he moved to evade the Iranians was particularly great in the mountainous terrain of southern Iran.

Meanwhile the rescue package was deployed, including dozens of aircraft and hundreds of special forces operatives. They opened fire on Iranian troops heading towards the airman. They had back-ups for back-ups and when two transport aircraft were stranded in Iranian territory they destroyed them on the ground to prevent them falling into enemy hands and sent in replacements.

The immense military skill, coordination and technological power speak for themselves. As does the tremendous courage of the rescue force pilots and ground troops who willingly threw themselves into a potential death trap.

The stakes could not have been higher – on top of saving two American lives.

Reeling from the political and military destruction they have suffered for the past few weeks, the Iranians would have done all in their malignant power to capitalise on the captured airmen. They would have been paraded publicly, most likely tortured into making video statements confessing to “war crimes” and put on trial. We would have had a full-blown hostage crisis, with the regime making sure the airmens’ plight was kept in the headlines for as long as they were held. Growing concessions would have been demanded from President Trump who would have come under increasing domestic political pressure from those opposed to this war.

The timing was critical, with Trump’s deadline for the Iranians to reach a deal looming fast. The last thing he needed was leverage of this kind in Tehran’s hands. He will no doubt be as grateful for the success of this unprecedented mission as will the downed airmen, their families and comrades.

Colonel Richard Kemp CBE is a former British Army infantry battalion commander who served in the Gulf, Bosnian, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars.