Contary to my earlier nail biting, it turns out Saddam's aircraft made not one sortie. In any case, there was plenty of other air defence assets, both land based and (US) carrierborne. Ark Royal was deployed to act as a helicopter carrier. But what would happen in a UK only operation?
As for the swing role - I think our friend Nozzles might have something to say about that, and so might other PPRuNers who have been involved with the mighty SHAR.
To quote Nozzles (sorry Noz).....
While I'm remeniscing, that particular fit involved 2 AAMs, a 1000lb bomb and a loaded recce camera. Our missions were fragged as 'Swing' whereby we cruised around waiting to be called to either intercept a/c, drop bombs or take recce photos. I believe some wise fellow once said that flexibility was the key to airpower. Needless to say, we didn't sweat when there was talk of the CAOC throwing single-role a/c out of theatre due to limited dispersal space. (We were triple-swing role and brought our own dipersal to the party!)