The new Iraqi Air Force is progressing much slower than its brother land services because of difficulties in training its people, according to Air Force Brigadier General Stephen Hoog. “The IAF had 900 modern airplanes 17, 18 years ago. It’s not that they don’t know how to run an air force. They don’t know how to run air force in this environment,” says Hoog, who commands the Coalition Air Operations Center in Qatar in addition to leading the 200 coalition trainers working with Iraqi airmen.
The old Iraqi Air Force (pictured) was stacked with supersonic fighter jets for fighting a conventional war against Iran. Hoog says different skills and equipment are needed for battling insurgents and militias. Close cooperation between air and ground forces is critical in Iraq, but the Iraqi Air Force has conducted little coordination training and has no forward air controllers. “They’re just now taking those steps,” Hoog says. ”The standing up of a joint operations center has helped this considerably. We also co-located Iraqi Air Force headquarters near the ground forces HQ. We’re starting to get that lash-up tighter and tighter.”
All those MiGs, Sukhois and attack choppers that Iraq flew before the IAF was dismantled in 2003 are being replaced with equipment better suited for patrolling roads and oil lines, hauling supplies and ground troops and surveilling for insurgents, Hoog explains. It’s been a mixed success. A couple dozen gifted Bell JetRangers and upgraded Bell Hueys are working out well, but a new procurement of 10 Mil Mi-17s was “tied up with procurement problems,” Hoog admits. ”The contract has been renegotiated. Eighteen more are enroute; by the summer of ’08 we should have 28.”
Fixed-wing assets are getting a boost, too. The dozen slow, prop-driven Sama CH-2000s and Seabird Seekers are okay for pipeline patrols but the Seekers can be “blown over” by a 15-knot cross-wind. For more robust ops including troop transport and surveillance over Baghdad, the IAF is buying Raytheon King Airs and Cessna Caravans to add to its three second-hand Lockheed Martin C-130Es that Hoog calls the IAF’s “most mature program — the one we’re most comfortable with.”
Looking ahead, the IAF might rebuild its fighter force in a decade or so, Hoog says. In the meantime, for close air support, “the first capability you’d see would be turboprop-based, but there are no hard plans.”
The service needs more people to fly and maintain all these new aircraft at the IAF’s four main bases: one each in the north and souh and two in and around Baghdad. “Air Force strength is just under 1,000 including 83 to 86 cadets. But they’re authorized 2,900. The goal this year is to expand from 950ish to 1,900-2,000 in a controlled fashion. The first thing is to rehire old IAF folks: air traffic controllers, maintanence personnel, warrants, aviation pilots. The IAF has got a significant rehire process underway as we speak.” But as result of relying largely on former Saddam-era IAF personnel, the new IAF is rather, um, mature. The average age of a current IAF pilot is 45 years. And Hoog’s people are just now launching processes for bringing in large numbers of brand-new pilot recruits.
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