Australian Contribution To The 1991 Gulf War - Overview

Overview

Australia's contribution to the 1991 Gulf War centred around a Naval Task Group which formed part of the multi-national fleet in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, under Operation Damask. In addition, medical teams were deployed aboard a US hospital ship and a naval clearance diving team took part in de-mining Kuwait's port facilities at the end of the war. Following the end of the war Australia deployed a medical unit on Operation Habitat to northern Iraq as part of Operation Provide Comfort. Royal Australian Navy warships were periodically deployed to the Persian Gulf to enforce sanctions against Iraq until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. While there were proposals to deploy other units (including an apparent US request for RF-111 reconnaissance aircraft) these proposals came to nothing and no Australian Army or Royal Australian Air Force combat units were deployed. While some publications suggest that the Australian Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) took part in the war, this is not correct (though the SASR was brought to a higher state of readiness and a very small number of personnel on exchange to the British SAS saw action).