Direct proof of use
The ALARM anti-radiation missile is directly documented in the 2003 Iraq War through RAF accounts of Operation Telic. In its review of offensive air power in March-April 2003, the Royal Air Force Centre for Air and Space Power Studies says the Ali Al Salem Combat Air Wing's tasking from March 20 to April 15 included suppression of enemy air defenses using the ALARM anti-radiation munition.
The same RAF account places the Ali Al Salem Combat Air Wing inside the UK air contribution to the coalition campaign and describes Tornado GR4 detachments operating from Kuwait. A Crown Copyright RAF image dated March 21, 2003 separately shows an ALARM missile being fitted to a Tornado GR4 at an airbase in the Gulf, supporting the deployment and carriage context for RAF ALARM operations during the opening phase of the war.
Sources: RAF Operation Telic Air Power Review, ALARM Loaded on Tornado in Kuwait
Timeline
Operation Telic was the United Kingdom's contribution to the coalition effort to remove Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime in Iraq in spring 2003. A UK parliamentary report describes the deployment and warfighting phases as the largest British operational military deployment since the 1990-1991 Gulf War, including 115 fixed-wing aircraft.
On March 21, 2003, RAF imagery recorded an ALARM missile being fitted to a Tornado GR4 at a Gulf airbase. From March 20 to April 15, the RAF review records 498 planned sorties for the Ali Al Salem Combat Air Wing, 476 of which became airborne; alongside offensive support, reconnaissance, counter-theater-ballistic-missile operations, and Storm Shadow launches, the wing's tasking included SEAD using ALARM.
Sources: Operation TELIC Parliamentary Report, ALARM Loaded on Tornado in Kuwait, RAF Operation Telic Air Power Review
Narrative
ALARM's 2003 Iraq War role was part of the RAF's Tornado GR4 contribution to coalition air operations. The documented side is United States and coalition forces, with the operator identified in the sources as the Royal Air Force. The weapon's supported mission was suppression of enemy air defenses rather than general bombing: the RAF article explicitly names SEAD and the ALARM anti-radiation munition in the Ali Al Salem wing's March-April tasking.
A UK defence white paper describes ALARM as a medium-range anti-radar air-to-surface missile integrated on the Tornado GR Mk 4 and forming part of the UK's SEAD capability. That background fits the Operation Telic evidence but does not by itself prove a combat shot; the direct conflict-use basis is the RAF Operation Telic study and the dated image of ALARM fitted to a Tornado GR4 in the Gulf during the opening days of the campaign.
The public sources reviewed here support RAF fielding and SEAD use of ALARM in Operation Telic, but they do not identify a specific Iraqi radar site destroyed by ALARM or a sortie-by-sortie launch log. The page therefore treats ALARM as a documented RAF Tornado GR4 SEAD munition in the 2003 Iraq War without assigning a verified target or missile count.
Sources: RAF Operation Telic Air Power Review, Defence Industrial Strategy ALARM, ALARM Loaded on Tornado in Kuwait
