Direct proof of use
The ZPU-2 is directly documented in the 1990 Gulf War through a National Museum of the U.S. Air Force accession record. The museum identifies its example as a Soviet-built ZPU-2 14.5 mm anti-aircraft gun captured by Allied forces during Operation Desert Storm.
The same record describes the mount as two KPV 14.5 mm heavy machine guns on a two-wheeled carriage and notes battle-damage bullet holes on the lower part of the gun mount. That evidence supports Iraqi fielding and capture of a ZPU-2 during the conflict, but it does not identify a specific firing incident, unit, or aircraft engagement.
Sources: National Museum Captured Iraqi ZPU-2
Campaign timeline
Iraq's August 2, 1990 invasion of Kuwait triggered the U.S.-led coalition buildup and the campaign later known as Operation Desert Shield. Operation Desert Storm began on January 17, 1991, with coalition air and missile attacks against Iraqi forces, command systems, air bases, and air defenses.
The museum record places the captured ZPU-2 inside the Desert Storm period rather than giving a day-level capture location. The strongest dated claim is therefore campaign-level: the gun was Iraqi air-defense materiel captured by Allied forces during Operation Desert Storm, whose main combat phase ended after coalition ground operations expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait in late February 1991.
Sources: U.S. Army War in the Persian Gulf, National Museum Captured Iraqi ZPU-2
Battlefield role
In Iraqi service, the ZPU-2 belonged to the short-range anti-aircraft artillery layer rather than to the radar-guided missile network that dominated coalition suppression-of-air-defenses planning. Its twin KPV arrangement gave Iraqi forces a mobile low-altitude air-defense and ground-role weapon that could be emplaced, towed, or recovered as battlefield materiel.
GulfLINK's former-Soviet and Russian air-defense reference describes the ZPU-2 as a towed system with twin 14.5 mm KPV heavy machine guns on a two-wheel carriage, effective in both low-altitude air-defense and ground roles. For the Gulf War record, the direct conflict evidence remains the captured Iraqi example; broader technical sources explain the role the mount was designed to fill.
Sources: National Museum Captured Iraqi ZPU-2, GulfLINK Air Defense Weapons
