Iraq's air force is regaining altitude

[GGaia]

No fighter jets, few troops, but Iraq's air force is regaining altitude
By Alexandra Zavis

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Sunday, October 19, 2008

KIRKUK, Iraq — When Abu Mohammed walks down the flight line at a base outside this northern Iraqi city, there's a swagger in his stride. Engineers too young to remember Iraq's storied dogfights against Iran rush up to shake his hand.

For years, the pilot had to live as a taxi driver. It feels good to take the controls of a plane again, he says. But the single-engine, turboprop aircraft in which he putters around are nothing like the fighter jets he commanded during the 1980s war with Iran.

Squeezing himself into the cockpit, he wrinkles his nose and sighs: "It's like going from a race car to a bicycle."

Grounded in 2003 when the U.S.-led invasion began, Iraq's once-powerful air force is taking to the skies again. Iraqi planes and helicopters conduct aerial surveillance, ferry troops and supplies, and recently completed their first medical evacuation.

But the country is years away from having enough aircraft, personnel and infrastructure to take control of its airspace from U.S.-led forces, American and Iraqi officers say. Until it does, U.S. help will be needed to secure Iraq.

The once-powerful air force was routed in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Iraqi pilots rarely took to the skies in the decade-plus era during which the United States and Britain imposed a no-fly zone over northern and southern Iraq to protect persecuted Shiite Muslims and ethnic Kurds. Many aircraft fell into disrepair because U.N. sanctions made it difficult to get spare parts.

Finally, when the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ordered remaining military jets buried in the sand.

The country's air force personnel dispersed when the U.S. authorities in Iraq disbanded the Iraqi military, and the buried jets were never recovered.

With Iraq confronting a persistent insurgency, one has only to step into a U.S. command post to see how critical air power has become to the country. U.S. transport helicopters and planes ferry troops, supplies and casualties across the country's broad open spaces, thus avoiding bomb-riddled roads. American drone planes track insurgent movements. Attack aircraft are used to wipe out militant mortar teams or drop a bomb on an explosives-rigged house without risking the lives of soldiers on the ground.

Because of the technology involved, giving Iraq similar capabilities will be expensive — "very expensive," said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Brooks Bash, who is responsible for advising the new force.

At about 1,600 personnel and 70 aircraft, the current force is a ghost of its former self. Air force chief Lt. Gen. Kamal Barzanji said he used to be responsible for twice as many troops and aircraft as a base commander under Saddam.

U.S. and Iraqi officers have devised a plan to build a self-sufficient air force with 350 aircraft and 20,000 personnel by 2020, but doing so will require the Iraqi government to spend about $2 billion a year.

"They are spending about a quarter of that right now," Bash said.

With sectarian bloodshed abating, some Iraqi reconnaissance planes will be fitted with Hellfire missiles by early next year. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has also promised to buy at least 50 attack helicopters. But his air force commanders complain that the government is moving too slowly. They want fighter jets.

Fighter jets are the most expensive planes to buy, the most complicated to maintain and the most difficult to fly. U.S. advisers say those aren't necessary to battle domestic militants.

But Iraqis haven't forgotten their country's long war against Iran. The Iraqi officers argue that their country needs a force strong enough to deter an attack by its neighbors.

"Our country is a rich country," Barzanji said. "Everybody who is rich has to have good security."

Additional material from The New York Times.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... force.html