The Iraqi Air Force (IQAF; ) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It is responsible for the defense of Iraqi airspace as well as the policing of its international borders. The IQAF also acts as a support force for the Iraqi Navy and the Iraqi Army, which allows Iraq to rapidly deploy its military. It is headquartered in Baghdad. The current commander is Lt. Gen. Khalid Mirdas al-Tamimi.
The Iraqi Air Force was founded in 1931, during British control of Iraq after the Allies’ defeat of the Ottomans in the First World War. The Iraqi Air Force initially had only a few pilots. The Iraqi Air Force operated mostly British aircraft until the 14 July Revolution in 1958, when the new Iraqi government began increased diplomatic and military relationships with the Soviet Union. The air force used both Soviet and British aircraft throughout the 1950s and 1960s. When Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979, the air force increased in equipment when Iraq ordered more Soviet and French aircraft. The air force's peak size came after the long Iran–Iraq War, which ended in 1988, when it consisted of 1029 aircraft of all types, including 550 combat aircraft, becoming the largest air force in the region. A downsizing and weakening occurred during the Persian Gulf War (1990–91) while coalition forces enforced no-fly zones. International sanctions kept Sadam Hussein from buying additional aircraft or parts to repair existing aircraft. The Air Force was so weakened, that during the 2003 invasion, most were hidden in bunkers or buried in the desert sand. The remnants of Iraq's air force were destroyed during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
After the invasion, the IQAF was rebuilt, receiving most of its training and aircraft from the United States. In 2007, Iraq asked Iran to return some of the scores of Iraqi fighter planes that flew there to escape destruction during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. As of 2014, Iran was receptive to the demands and was working on refurbishing an unspecified number of jets.
History The first 10 years: 1931–1941 The Iraqi Air Force considers its founding day as 22 April 1931. This day, the first Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF) pilots returned to the country from training in the United Kingdom together with the air force's first aircraft: five de Havilland Gipsy Moths. These formed No. 1 Squadron, based at RAF Hinaidi. Before the creation of the new air force, the RAF Iraq Command was in charge of all British Armed Forces elements in Iraq in the 1920s and early 1930s. The RIrAF consisted of five pilots, aeronautics students trained at the RAF College Cranwell, and 32 aircraft mechanics. The original five pilots selected for aircraft training in 1929 were Natiq Mohammed Khalil al-Tay, Mohammed Ali Jawad, Hafdhi Aziz, Akrem Mushtaq, and Musa Ali. Later, Mahmud Salman and Atif Najib joined from the Army in 1931. The RIrAF saw its first aerial combat as early as October 1931, against Kurdish insurgents in the north of the country. It was during operations against the Kurds that the air force suffered its first combat loss, when a DH.60 collided with a mountain near Barzan in April 1932, killing both crew members. That year, the Gipsy Moths were reinforced by three more DH.60Ts and three de Havilland Puss Moths. The next year, eight de Havilland Dragons were delivered, and in 1934, the first out of a total of 34 Hawker Audaxes (named Nisr in Iraqi service) were acquired.
In the years following Iraqi independence, the Air Force was still dependent on the Royal Air Force. The Iraqi government allocated the majority of its military expenditure to the Iraqi Army and by 1936 the Royal Iraqi Air Force had only 37 pilots and 55 aircraft. The following year, the Air Force showed some growth, increasing its number of pilots to 127. This enabled it to purchase additional aircraft. In 1937, following high-level visits in Italy and Great Britain, Iraq placed orders for 4 Savoia-Marchetti SM.79s, 25 Breda Ba.65s, and 15 Gloster Gladiators. In 1939, 15 Northrop 8As were bought.
The RIrAF's first combat against another conventional military was in the 1941 Anglo-Iraqi War, when the Iraqi government made a bid for full independence following a coup by Rashid Ali against pro-British Iraqi leaders. The war began in earnest on 2 May, when British aircraft started attacking the Iraqi troops that were encircling RAF Habbaniya. In response, the RIrAF started attacking the airfield, destroying two Hawker Audaxes and one Airspeed Oxford on the ground that day. On 4 May, eight Vickers Wellington and two Bristol Blenheim bombers of the RAF attacked Rasheed Air Base, the RIrAF's main airfield. However, most Iraqi aircraft had been redeployed to Al-Washash and Baqubah. During the raid, a Wellington that had been hit by anti-aircraft fire was attacked by an Iraqi Gloster Gladiator, and was damaged to the point where it had to make an emergency lading outside Baghdad. This represented the first aerial victory for the RIrAF. However, on the same day an SM.79 was shot down by Iraqi ground fire over the airfield at Al Diwaniyah. The RAF kept attacking Iraqi airfields; on 8 May, it claimed to have destroyed six aircraft on the ground at Baqubah, and shot down one Gladiator. Around 15 May, Luftwaffe aircraft painted in Iraqi markings arrived in Iraq to help in the fight against the British. However, the latter were meanwhile sending ever more reinforcements to Iraq, and support from the Axis powers could not change the course of the war. Losses and a lack of spares and replacement aircraft resulted in the Germans' departure at the end of May. On 31 May, a ceasefire was signed, thus ending the war.
Reconstruction and growth: 1941–1967 The Anglo-Iraqi War left the RIrAF shattered. Several squadrons had all of their aircraft destroyed, while many officers and pilots had been killed or had fled to neighbouring countries. Due to the destruction of the Flying School's entire aircraft inventory, training of new pilots only restarted six years after the war. Flying hours were also limited by the British authorities, which confiscated three of the remaining Gloster Gladiators in March 1942. Despite Iraqi attempts to buy some new aircraft, the only ones the British were ready to provide were some worn-out Gladiators: although 30 were delivered between September 1942 and May 1944, most of them were in such a state that they could only be used as sources of spare parts. From 1944 to 1947, 33 Avro Ansons were acquired. Despite these hurdles, the RIrAF helped put down the 1943 Barzani revolt. In late 1946, the Iraqis reached an agreement with the British, under which they would return their surviving Avro Ansons, in exchange for the authorisation to order 30 Hawker Fury F.Mk.1 fighters and two Fury T.Mk.52 two-seat trainers. The next year, three de Havilland Doves and three Bristol Freighters were ordered.
The RIrAF was still recovering from its destruction during the Anglo-Iraqi War when it joined in the war against the newly created state of Israel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The air force only played a small role in the first war against Israel. From 1948 to 1949 No. 7 Squadron operated Avro Anson training bombers from Transjordan from where they flew several attacks against the Israelis.Malovany 2017, p.72 fn6. After a series of attacks on Arab capitals, flown by three Boeing B-17s that had been pressed into service by the Israeli Air Force, the governments of Transjordan and Syria demanded that the Iraqis replace their Ansons with Hawker Furies. However, only six Furies were sent to Damascus, and they never encountered any Israeli aircraft. Moreover, due to the limited amount of cannon ammunition supplied by the British, and the absence of bombs, they were only used for armed reconnaissance. In the end, the four surviving aircraft were handed over to Egypt in October 1948. Despite these early problems, in 1951 the RIrAF purchased 20 more Fury F.Mk.1s, for a total of 50 F.Mk.1s single-seaters and 2 two-seaters, which equipped No. 1, No. 4 and No. 7 Squadrons.
In the early 1950s, thanks to increased income from oil and agricultural exports, the RIrAF was thoroughly re-equipped. In 1951, 15 each of de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks, Percival Provosts and North American T-6s were bought to replace obsolete de Havilland Tiger Moth trainers. With these new aircraft, the RIrAF Flying School was expanded into the Air Force College. The training curriculum was improved, and the number of students graduating each year was increased. This allowed to form a solid basis for the RIrAF's long-term growth. Also in 1951, the RIrAF bought its first helicopters: three Westland Dragonflies. The RIrAF's first jet fighter was the de Havilland Vampire: 12 FB.Mk.52 fighters and 10 T.Mk.55 trainers were delivered from 1953 to 1955. These were quickly supplemented by 20 de Havilland Venoms, delivered between 1954 and 1956. Following the formation of the Baghdad Pact, the United States donated at least six Cessna O-1 Bird Dogs to the RIrAF. The RAF also vacated Shaibah Air Base, and the RIrAF took over it as Wahda Air Base. In 1957, six Hawker Hunter F.Mk.6s were delivered. The next year, the United States agreed to provide 36 F-86F Sabres free of charge.
However, this plan was never realised. Following the 14 July Revolution of 1958, which resulted in the end of monarchy in Iraq, the influence of the Iraqi Communist Party grew significantly. The first commander of the Iraqi Air Force (the "Royal" prefix was dropped after the revolution), Jalal Jaffar al-Awqati, was an outspoken communist, and encouraged prime minister Abd al-Karim Qasim to improve relations between Iraq and the USSR. The Soviets reacted quickly, and in the autumn of 1958 a series of arms contracts was passed between Iraq and the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. These stipulated the delivery of MiG-15UTI trainers, MiG-17F fighters, Ilyushin Il-28 bombers, and Antonov An-2 and An-12 transports. The first aircraft arrived in Iraq in January 1959. During the late 1960s and or early 1970s additional MiG-17s may have been purchased and then forwarded to either Syria or Egypt.
Tom Cooper and Stefan Kuhn list the air force's squadrons in 1961 as: 1st Squadron, Venom FB.Mk.1, based at Habbaniyah AB, CO Capt. A.-Mun'em Ismaeel 2nd Squadron (Iraq), Mi-4, based at Rashid AB, CO Maj. Wahiq Ibraheem Adham 3rd Squadron (Iraq), An-12B, based at Rashid AB, CO Capt. Taha Ahmad Mohammad Rashid 4th Squadron (Iraq), Fury I, based at Kirkuk Air Base, CO Maj. A. Latif 5th Squadron (Iraq), MiG-17F, based at Rashid AB, CO Maj. Khalid Sarah Rashid 6th Squadron, Hunter FGA.59/A/B, based at Habbaniyah AB, CO Capt. Hamid Shaban 7th Squadron, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F, based at Kirkuk, CO Maj. Ne'ma Abdullah Dulaimy 8th Squadron, Il-28, based at Rasheed Air Base, CO Maj. Adnan Ameen Rashid 9th Squadron, MiG-19S, in process of formation.
The IrAF received approximately 30 MiG-19Ss, 10 MiG-19Ps, and 10 MiG-19PMs in 1959 and 1960. However, only 16 MiG-19Ss were ever taken up; the other aircraft were not accepted due to their poor technical condition, and remained stored in Basra. The accepted MiG-19Ss were operated from Rasheed Air Base by the 9th Squadron. Their service in Iraq did not last long however: the survivors were donated to Egypt around 1964. Iraq also received MiG-21F-13 and Tupolev Tu-16 bombers starting in 1962.
The November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état realigned Iraq with NATO powers, and as a result, more second-hand Hawker Hunters were delivered to the IQAF. Aircraft imports from the Communist Eastern European nations had been suspended until 1966, when MiG-21PF interceptors were purchased from the Soviet Union.
In 1966, Iraqi Captain Munir Redfa defected with his MiG-21F-13 to Israel which in turn gave it to the United States for evaluation under the code-name "Have Donut".
Six-Day War