Summary
- The renaissance of the Iraqi Air Force included the F-16s but also involved the AC-208 Combat Caravan and L-159 ALCA.
- The Czech Aero L-159 ALCA, a light combat aircraft, played a role in Iraq’s modernization efforts alongside Cessna aircraft.
- Iraqi F-16s have proven to be reliable and crucial in air-to-ground missions, with 66% mission capability reported.
The French word “renaissance,” which in term derives from the Italian word “rinascita,” which means “rebirth.” Besides its primary usage in specific reference to that period of Western European history that marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity,it also means, in a more general sense, “a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.” Accordingly, I mentioned in a couple of previous articles for Simple Flying, I proudly played a small yet significant part in the renaissance of the Iraqi Air Force (IqAF; القوات الجوية العراقية/Al Quwwat al Jawwiyah al Iraqiyyah) as a private military contractor (PMC; or “damn dirty stinking mercenary” or “privateer” as I jokingly tell my friends and family) at Balad Airbase from 2015 to 2019) at Balad Airbase from 2015 to 2018, providing training & mentoring to the IqAF personnel at that base to help them certified to host the American-made F-16 Fighting Falcon (or “Viper” if you prefer) and thus finally modernize their force in the post-Saddam Hussein era.
However, although the F-16 is certainly the veritable flagship of the IqAF’s post-Saddam renaissance, it’s not the only warplane that played a part in this rebirth. It is now my honor and pleasure to cover not just the F-16 but some of the other warbirds that have helped transition away from the Cold War Soviet-designed combat aircraft (such as the MiG-23 “Flogger,” MiG-25 “Foxbat” and MiG-29 “Fulcrum”).
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Cessna AC-208 Combat Caravan
Before the F-16 or even the second warbird on this list arrived in-country, this was the plane that was enabling the IqAF to take the fight to the Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL/Da’esh terrorist group when I arrived at Balad in 2015. Now, typically one doesn’t associate an aircraft manufacturer like Cessna with warplanes, but as the saying goes, “Desperate times call for desperate measures, or to put a more military-worthy spin on that saying, “Adapt, Improvise, Overcome.”
As the Airforce Technology (AT) website elaborates:
“[The] AC-208 Combat Caravan is a light attack combat aircraft manufactured by US-based aerospace and defence company Alliant Techsystems (ATK), a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. It is derived from the Cessna 208 Grand Caravan aircraft…The Cessna 208 Caravan is a passenger and utility aircraft developed in the 1980s. ATK developed a combat variant of the Cessna 208 by incorporating intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance features.”
“The AC-208 Combat Caravan is armed with Hellfire missiles. Other upgrades over the basic Cessna Grand Caravan include an electro-optical targeting system with an integrated laser designator, air-to-ground and air-to-air data link and self-protection equipment.”
It functions as a counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft converted from a cargo / ISR plane. Along with the Embraer A-29 Super Tucano being used by US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), it goes to show that even in this day & age of 5th Generation stealth fighters, single-engine prop planes still have a niche to fill in frontline combat operations. At last count, the IqAF has two AC-208s.
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For anybody who’s wondering, the Cessna Grand Caravan has a max cruising speed of 185 kn (213 mph, 342 km/h)
The plane even makes a brief appearance in the official song “Ya Sattar,” which is a motivational song for the Iraqi military’s anti-ISIS fight, sung by Iraqi pop singer Ahmed Jawad (born 1985). At the 3:43 mark (blink, and you’ll miss it), you’ll see the plane discharging one of its deadly Hellfires:
Speaking of “Ya Sattar,” I may or may not have danced to that song (and sung along with the refrain) on multiple occasions as part of my international cross-cultural bonding with the IqAF troops that I worked with…
Photo: Christian D. Orr (with apologies for the poor quality) | Simple Flying
The IqAF Caravan drivers proved themselves quite adept at destroying ISIS ground targets and continued to do so even after the next two planes on this list officially went operational. Tragically, a least one IqAF Cessna was lost in an anti-ISIS combat operation near Kirkuk on March 16, 2016; the official Government of Iraq (GoI) explanation for the crash was “a technical problem,” whilst the ISIS propaganda machine claims that they themselves shot down the plane with 57 mm antiaircraft fire. Whatever the actual cause, all three crew members perished in the crash, including a personal friend of mine, Brig. Gen. (العميد/Amid) Ali, with whom I’d worked closely at the Base Defense Operations Center (BDOC). May Allah rest his soul.
Aero Czech L-159 ALCA
At least one of America’s NATO allies also decided to add some metaphorical seeds to the IqAF’s reflowering, namely the Czech Republic (or Czechia if you prefer). The “seed” in this case is the L-159, which is a is a subsonic light combat aircraft and advanced trainer developed produced by Aero Vodochody (headquartered at at Vodochody Airport in the Prague-East District, in the municipal territories of Vodochody and Odolena Voda), developed from that same manufacturer’s L-39 Albatros.
The ALCA made its maiden flight on August 4, 1997, and entered into operational service with the Czech Air Force (Vzdušné síly) in April 2000. In early 2015, the GoI inked a deal for 14 L-159 aircraft, comprising 12 L-159As (single-seat) and two L-159T1s (the two-seater variant). According to the World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft (WDMMA), the IqAf has 10 operations ALCAs as of 2024.
Specifications of the L-159A include:
|
Max Airspeed: |
582 mph (936 km/h, 505 kn, Mach 0.758) |
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Combat Range: |
351 mi (565 km, 305 NM) |
|
Service Ceiling |
43,300 ft (13,200 m) |
|
Rate of Climb: |
12,200 ft/min (62 m/s) |
|
Armament: |
|
During my time at Balad, the Czech Air Force deployed a contingent of troops to train the IqAF on the ALCA; I only had minimal personal interaction with these Czech airmen, but they certainly impressed me as a professional and squared-away bunch. As for the warbird’s effectiveness in IqAF hands, in a November 2017 article, Key.Aero quoted then-IqAF chief General ( فريق أول/Fariq ‘awal) Anwar Hamad Amin thusly:
“The ALCA has played a major role in defeating Daesh… They flew as part of our combat force, alongside Cessna 208 Caravans, Su-25s and F-16s, participating in combat missions all over the north and northwest of Iraq, to help liberate places like Fallujah, Ramadi, Rawa, Tal Afar, Nawija and Mosul.”
The article also noted that the IQAF’s first ALCA combat mission took place on June 12, 2016, when two of the warbirds, each loaded with two Mk82 bombs, attacked Da’esh targets, with all four bombs delivered successfully.
As can be seen from General Amin’s quoted statement, the IqAF hasn’t cashiered **all** of its Saddam-era leftover, Soviet-designed warplanes; WDMMA shows that they still have 21 Suhkhoi Su-25 “Frogfoot” airframes left in their fleet.
F-16 Fighting Falcon
Okay, to paraphrase the title of the Vanessa Williams song, we’re “saving the best for last.”
The first two of the IqAF F-16s touched down at Balad Airbase in June 2015. I’m proud to say I was there to witness it, albeit from a distance, and man oh man, you should’ve seen the reaction of the Iraqi troops I’d trained and mentored. To say they were happier than kids in a candy store would be an understatement; they were as overjoyed as if their country had just won the World Cup.
WDMMA reports a total of 26 F-16IQs in the arsenal. Two of them were lost in accidents in 2021. In a May 2023 article for The Warzone, Joseph Trevithick cited a routine report published jointly by the Inspectors General (IG) of the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of State (DOS), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID):
“‘Iraq’s F-16s continue to be the most reliable shooting platform,’ according to the report. Iraq ‘did not use Russian produced Mi-28 or Mi-35 attack helicopters, its Chinese-produced CH-4 armed UAS, or its Czech-produced L-159 light fighters’ for strikes, at least against ISIS, between January 1 and March 31, 2023, it adds.”
“Iraq’s fleet of 34 F-16IQs – a mix of single and two-seat versions – are ’66 percent mission capable’ and ‘the Iraqi Air Force (IqAF) [can] adequately perform air-to-ground missions with current parts and personnel on hand,’ the report continues. ‘Russian-made aircraft in the ISF fleet remain in disrepair due to the inability to acquire parts because of the sanctions related to the war in Ukraine.’”
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Personal Postscript
Since I mentioned the MiG-23 “Flogger” in the opening segment of this article, I’m going to conclude with one more set of photos from the grand ol’ time I had at Balad: a MiG-23 leftover from the Saddam era that escaped destruction and was preserved for posterity and got repainted in all-green at some point (I was never able to find out the story of Who, When, and Why behind this paint job). As I look back upon this “Flogger” photo op and mentally compare that with the Vipers that the IqAF is using now, I have to send this message to any of my Iraqi friends who might be reading this article: in the immortal words of the old Virginia Slims cigarette adverts, “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby.”