Once mighty Iraq Air Force rebuilds – but pilots keep low profile

In a country at war with insurgents rather than its neighbors, the immediate goal of the Iraqi Air Force is reinforcing domestic security by supporting the Iraqi Army. Its pilots and Cessnas – both 208Bs and smaller 172s – conduct aerial surveillance on suspected insurgents and on oil installations and power lines.

While a far cry from the Soviet MiGs and French Mirage fighter jets that Mr. Hussein bought with oil money and international loans, Iraq’s current fleet is suited to its immediate priority: fighting insurgents rather than another air force.

“Where we are today is what this country needs. What can a Mirage do against the terrorists?” says Third Squadron leader Colonel Bayati, who spent three years in France in the 1980s training in the fighter planes. “With these small airplanes we can see better, stay in the air longer.”

In a landmark test in late October, Bayati fired the Iraqi Air Force’s first laser-guided air-to-ground missile since before the war. The US Hellfire missile is intended for precision strikes on individual targets. Three of the Cessnas flown by the 30-pilot squadron led by Bayati, who did not want his full name used, are fitted to carry Hellfire missiles.

While Iraq’s security forces have made huge strides since 2003, logistics remain the weakest link. On Kirkuk Air Base, despite the $100,000 Hellfire missiles, there aren’t enough blankets for the airmen. A request for pilots’ headsets made a year ago hasn’t come through.

Despite that, the former fighter pilots have the cross-cultural swagger that comes with having flown the most technologically advanced and lethal aircraft in the world.

“There’s a kind of brotherhood – you know you’ve become a member of the fraternity,” says US Air Force Maj. Brian Grill, an F-16 pilot advising the Iraqis.

Historic role of Iraqi Air Force

Iraq’s Air Force has played a central role in Iraq’s war-torn history – statues were erected in their honor during the bitter 1980-88 war with Iran, when they inflicted severe damage on Iran’s Air Force.

After the US-led invasion in 2003 opened all of Iraq’s borders, Iranian-backed groups hunted down and assassinated hundreds of Iraqi pilots for their role in the war. As a result, many pilots left the country or went underground. Most are still afraid to give their names or have their photos taken, and none of them wear their flight suits in public.

Bayati, who doesn’t tell his neighbors what he does for a living, says gunmen came to his home looking for him shortly after he joined the new Air Force. He thought of quitting but decided to stay to set an example.

“We are warriors – we wouldn’t be afraid to fight them face to face but they go to your weak point, to your families and your children,” says Bayati; his former commander and the man’s son were killed three years ago.

After the Hellfire missile launch, Bayati’s teenage son told him that all his friends at school were talking about the news and he wanted to tell them it was his dad.

Bayati says he told his son that that piece of history could wait to be told. “You will tell them in the future, ‘That was my father.’ Now is not the time.”

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