The battle of Sidra was thoroughly modern warfare, fought on both sides by forces aiming at over-the-horizon targets and using highly sophisticated equipment. For the U.S., the encounter offered battle testing for two Navy missiles and the first opportunity to see how its planes could elude Soviet- built SA-5 ground-to-air missiles. A guide to the principal hardware:
HARM, the gold-plated ($283,000 each) high-speed antiradiation missile, which has been criticized by some Pentagon officials for poor test performance, succeeded in twice disabling a Libyan SA-5 radar station. Fired from the wing of a Navy A-7 Corsair jet, the missile homed in on...
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