Implementing 'no-fly' zone would involve military: Gates

Enforcing the no-fly zone is doable but not without risk, he said when asked at Congressional hearing his views on this.

"Well, if it's ordered, we can do it. But the reality is...there's a lot of, frankly, loose talk about some of these military options. And let's just call a spade a spade," he said.
"A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defences. That's the way you do a no-fly zone.

And then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down. But that's the way it starts," Gates said.

"It requires more airplanes than you would find on a single aircraft carrier. It is a big operation in a big country," he told lawmakers.

Air defences consist of radar and missile threats.Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Libyans themselves have air capabilities.

"You have to assume -- if you're going to do something like that, you've got to assume it's very capable.

Obviously, we know something about their readiness, but you have to assume it's very capable until proven otherwise," he said."We've not been able to confirm that any of the Libyan aircraft have fired on their own people.

There have been reports of that, but we have been unable, through this morning, to confirm that that's actually happened," he said.

Mullen said America's ability to predict historically has been pretty lousy."Certainly we have been concerned about what has been, I guess, building in the Middle East over time, specifically, but I don't think anybody predicted what would cause it and when it would happen and the speed with which it would happen," he said