Salute to Iraq's fledgling force

Almost nine years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, all US military personnel have quit the Republic of Iraq but they have left behind an Iraqi Air Force (IAF) and Army Air Corps that are a shadow of the late dictator’s air power.

In the wake of the 2003 invasion, Russian MiGs and Sukhoi fighters were found buried in the sand at what was then Al-Taqqadum Air Base, west of Baghdad. Never reconstituted by the Allied occupying forces, the air force of Saddam Hussein is estimated to have been around 300, with more aircraft used by his army for internal security.

The US military organisations that have brought Iraqi air power to where it is now have been varied. There is the US Army Security Assistance Command; the US Army Acquisition Support Center; the US Air Force (USAF) Security Assistance Command; the Iraqi Training and Advisory Mission (ITAM) for Air; and Central Command overseeing Iraqi operations.

And, after December 31, there was also the Office of Security Cooperation, based in the 16,500-staff-strong US Embassy in Baghdad.

Of the various organisations involved, ITAM had the mission to “help rebuild Iraqi air power”, according to Major General Anthony Rock, its director for the last 12 months of its existence until December 2011.

Rock, also commander of the 321^st Expeditionary Air Wing, and former Commandant of the US Army’s Air Command and Staff College, was not available for interview but ITAM did provide a US military news service video interview that took place in September. In it, Rock described the revived Iraqi military aviation as “nascent but credible capability”.

What nascent meant, by November 2011, was an IAF that stood at around 5,000 airmen and 77 fixed-wing aircraft and an Iraqi Army Aviation Command (IqAAC) that was 2,500 personnel with about 90 helicopters. Of all these aircraft, only the legacy Mi-17 and 2009-build Mi-171 helicopters are Russian.

Iraq is expected to receive Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcons from 2014, reflecting the new relationship between the US and the Arab nation. The 18 that have been ordered have a $3 billion price tag and are the Block 52 version. At least 10 Iraqi pilots are in the US training to fly the F-16s. The 18 F-16s are part of what is expected to be a total order of 36.

Lockheed said: “We look forward to supporting the two governments in this foreign military sales agreement and welcome Iraq as the 26th nation to operate the F-16. Deliveries will begin in 2014.”

Another aircraft that is readily identifiable as part of the US military is the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules. Iraq has three C-130Es that the IAF operates without US help and the country has a further six C-130J Super Hercules on order. The first of the six is expected to be delivered in December 2012. Candidate pilots, loadmasters and technicians for the Super Hercules have already been sent to the US for training.

Pilot training for these recognisable aircraft and other types now in service began in 2007. A variety of air bases are involved in the training. Tikrit’s air base is home to the Iraqi Air Force College. Here pilot candidates learn to fly Beechcraft T-6A Texan II under the advanced training programme. The T-6A, of which the college has more than a dozen, is an aircraft with an acrobatic capability, indicating that these are likely to be for preliminary fighter training.

Another Hawker Beechcraft aircraft used by Iraq is the King Air 350. This is flown by the IAF’s 87 Squadron and is used for counter-insurgency.

In 2007 it was announced that the King Air 350 was to get General Atomics Aeronautical Systems intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) payloads. A contract worth $53 million was awarded to General Atomics for ISR packages. The payload would include General Atomics’ Lynx IIE synthetic aperture radar, ground moving target indicator (GMTI) radar, MX-15i electro-optical, infrared camera system and a high-bandwidth data link system.

Beechcraft did not respond to enquiries about its aircraft in Iraq but General Atomics said another logistics contract, since 2007, had been placed. The company was not able to provide further details. 

Pilots that will fly the King Air 350 can begin their training on the Sama CH-2000 from Jordanian Aerospace Industries (JAI). The CH-2000 aircraft were part of a $12 million US Army contract for 16 of the type, equipped with forward-looking infrared sensors and Harris secure communications equipment for surveillance duties. The deal with JAI also covered the provision of training for IAF pilots and maintenance crew and long-term spare parts and logistics support.

In the north of Iraq, near the city of Kirkuk, is Al Udeid Air Base. Here trainee pilots learn to fly the Cessna 172 Skyhawks. These pilots can also learn to fly the Cessna 208 Caravan which, like the King Air 350, has a counter-insurgency function. But the Caravan does not just carry ISR payloads, namely electro-optical sensors and communications equipment; it has two Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. Each missile is attached to a hard point under either side of the wing. The USAF’s 521st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron carries out training for this.

The first Caravan Hellfire launch took place in 2009, which resulted in a direct hit on a training target.

Kirkuk is also where the US began training pilots. A first intake of 10 Iraqi students began classroom instruction at the air base on October 1 2007. Four of them got to fly one of the IAF's then new Caravans. Since then the goal has been to produce 80 fixed-wing and 80 rotary-wing pilots per year.

Kirkuk’s training fleet was to comprise 12 Skyhawks, five Caravans, 12 Bell 206 JetRangers, 10 Bell 205 UH-1HPs, also known as the Huey II, and nine Mil Design Bureau Mi-17s.

Under the US-directed revival of its military aviation, Iraq has split its fixed and rotor wing between the IAF and the IqAAC, respectively. The IqAAC operates six different helicopters, the Mil Mi-17s and Mil Mi-171E, Bell 407, Huey II, the Eurocopter EC635 and the Aerospatiale SA340 Gazelle.

A major Army air base is at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad. It is also home to the IqAAC’s largest maintenance facility. It is what the US military calls the Mi-17 hangar and “the largest free-span building in the Middle East”.

The Mi-17 hangar is 76m long and has enough room for six Mi-171s to be undergoing maintenance, office space and a helicopter simulator for training. Opened in January 2011, the US Army Corps of Engineers managed the $9.8 million project that began in 2009. The project also included the construction of an air traffic control tower and a bulk fuel station.

The Mi-171 helicopters, which will be maintained in the Mi-17 hanger, are used for troop mobility and flown by IqAAC’s 15 Squadron. In 2010 the Iraqi government ordered 14 Mi-171Es at a cost of $190 million.

Rock’s ITAM has had 30 personnel training the Iraqis on Mi-171 piloting and maintenance. US forces have also been involved with Mi-17 live fire exercises conducted at the Besmaya Combat Training Center.

The Huey IIs, meanwhile, are flown by the IqAAC 2 Squadron for reconnaissance. It will have a fleet of 16. From April 2011 the unit saw Iraqis take control of their pilot training. Training overseen by the US military has included the use of night vision.

While the Mi-17s are primarily for mobility and the Huey IIs are for recon, the Iraqis have opted for a tried and tested armed scout. In late 2008, Iraq decided to purchase 24 Bell 407s armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, 2.75in rockets, and .50cal machine guns.

The sale of the Bell 407s was part of a larger package that included initial spares, ground support equipment and tools, and aircraft maintenance through contractor logistics support.

The US military has stated that in December 2010 a cargo plane shipped three Bell 407 training helicopters from Huntsville International Airport to Camp Taji. Lieutenant Colonel Shamkky Abbas, a commander and instructor pilot with IqAAC’s 21 Squadron, told the US military news service that “to receive the aircraft is something like a dream that became a reality”.

The US military had planned to have a squadron of Bell 407 armed scouts operational by the end of 2011. This could not be confirmed to Arabian Aerospace.

While Iraq needs aircraft and pilots, it also needs air bases, radars and air traffic control. Building up this infrastructure for the IAF and IqAAC has also been a slow process.

At Camp Taji an ATC tower was built for Iraqi air traffic controller training and it is now manned 24 hours a day by IqAAC controllers. The ATC training was carried out by the Washington Consulting Group, which specialises in international air traffic management. The Iraqi staff were taught English and were certified to the International Civil Aviation Organisation standards for ATC.

As well as training, the US has “gifted”, as Rock describes it, to Iraq, one long-range radar and the airport surveillance radars the Americans installed for their own use. One other long-range radar has been provided as a foreign military sale item.

In April 2011 USAF and Iraqi officials opened a new $9 million air operations centre at the IAF’s Al Muthana Air Base. At the ceremony Rock said: “This new facility will provide… an integrated air picture across the entire country, enabling the support not just for the IAF and IqAAC, but potentially to the Army, Navy and even police forces for the unified protection of Iraq.”

This means Iraq will be able to monitor and direct ISR operations and have the resulting image data from the aircraft retransmitted to multiple locations. The importance of this capability, and the fact that so many of Iraq’s aircraft carry ISR payloads, was made clear when, in September, Rock said the Iraqis had focused on internal security. “They have been in the fight of their life for their fledgling democracy,” he added.

Doug Barrie is the International Institute of Strategic Studies’ senior fellow for military aerospace. He said: “A balanced force structure of combat, [ISR] and intra-theatre transport aircraft supported by rotary lift would seem a reasonable longer term aim. This, however, will be reliant on available funding and the speed at which the military can renew its cadre of air and ground crew.”

Rock expects the wider issue of Iraqi national airspace control to be enhanced through co-operation. He expects the Jordanian Air Force to become a partner for Iraq and thinks that other Middle Eastern countries that already operate the F-16 and C-130 can help with training. The United Arab Emirates and Egypt, for example, both fly F-16s.

A few months after Rock arrived, in April 2011, Iraqi Army General Babakir Zebari, commander of Iraq’s armed forces and the Ministry of Defense chief of staff, told the US Army news service: “I want to thank all of our friends from the United States because they are always committed to supporting Iraq’s journey in democracy and helping us keep security and fight terrorism.”

From the range of aircraft that Iraq’s revived military aviation capability has, security and fighting terrorism will be the priority for some time to come. But, by the US military’s own admission, Iraq’s capability is “nascent” and at a time when the country and its region are unstable.