Zabiha News

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“After only five months in the Iraqi Air Force’s new training program, Lt. Haider Jasim has already gotten more time behind the yoke of a plane than the average pilot in Saddam Hussein’s Air Force got all year. Old regime flyers spent most of their time on the ground due to limited resources following the Gulf War in 1991.

But today, as Hussein-era pilots mix with fresh recruits, Lieutenant Jasim and many other young officers – who’ve trained on equipment that rivals that of their US counterparts – say the old pilots are hardly the mentors one might expect senior officers to be. “The pilots from the Saddam regime don’t have very much experience,” says Jasim. “I speak with them, but they don’t have enough experience to learn from.”

After nearly evaporating following the US-led invasion in 2003, the Iraqi Air Force is making a comeback. Now, fresh recruits and old regime pilots must come together to create a new Air Force that will be radically different from Hussein’s massive assault-capable fleet that operated with notoriously loose safety standards. But scaling back the force’s historically aggressive posture while managing its rapidly swelling ranks will be a delicate balance.

“We are not really thinking like before. Before, [Hussein] made the Air Force too big for our country,” says Col. Samir Agarr, commander of Iraq’s 23rd Squadron. “We need an Air Force to defend ourselves from any attack from our neighbors; that’s all we need.”

Although the new Iraqi Air Force (IQAF) has been operational for the past 3 1/2 years, only in the past year has the fledging force begun to take off. At the beginning of this year it had about 800 airmen, but that figure has already more than doubled to just over 2,000, and by the end of 2009, the IQAF is set to triple to over 6,000 airmen.

By 2018, only about 5 to 10 percent of pilots will have more than 10 years’ of experience, meaning that many of today’s officers like Jasim will shoot through the ranks to the top of the IQAF at a pace considered blistering by any military organization, creating a young core of leadership.

Although the Iraqi government is considering purchasing F-16 fighter jets, US advisers and most senior Iraqi airmen agree that for the current mission, Iraq’s Air Force is best served by propeller planes, such as the Cessna Skyhawk and the Cessna Caravan.

Unlike jets, these planes are more fuel-efficient, better equipped to handle Iraq’s dusty conditions, and can fly at the slow speeds necessary for conducting surveillance missions – the bread and butter of the IQAF.

In December, though, the IQAF will acquire combat capabilities when it receives Caravans equipped with Hellfire air-to-ground missiles. Still, the planes have limited range and will pose little threat to Iraq’s neighbors.”