KIRKUK, Iraq — Col. Abdul Karim Aziz, a fighter pilot who survived the war between Iraq and Iran during the 1980s, had all but given up hope of flying again when his mother told him in 2005 that it was time to get back in the air.
“When the war began, I didn’t think of coming back,” said Aziz, 49, speaking about the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Referring to the American military, he added: “I didn’t like the friendly side.”
The U.S. military all but paralyzed the Iraqi air force after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, turning veteran pilots like Aziz into grounded bureaucrats. The little that remained of the country’s once-mighty fleet was obliterated during the early weeks of the Iraq war. And Iraq’s skies became the domain of the U.S. military, controlled from an operations center in Qatar.
Now in an about-face, the U.S. Air Force is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get Aziz and others to fly again, train a fresh generation of pilots and build up the Iraqi air force’s fleet and infrastructure from scratch. The Air Force project is part of a broader effort to train and equip specialized units of Iraq’s security forces, which U.S. commanders see as a critical step to set the conditions for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
As violence has decreased in Iraq in recent months, these initiatives have become one of the U.S. military’s top priorities. But they are getting off the ground as Iraqis have stepped up calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and as U.S. lawmakers, who in recent years have allocated billions of dollars to train and equip Iraq’s security forces, are increasingly demanding that Iraqis pick up a greater share of the tab for security.
U.S. lawmakers appropriated $8.5 billion to train and equip Iraq’s security forces in 2007 and 2008. Of that sum, roughly $457 million went to the Iraqi air force.
Building an air force takes years, if not decades. And rebuilding Iraq’s has been a particularly challenging mission, U.S. officials say. It was been hindered by the ongoing conflict, what U.S. officials describe as a chronic inability by the Iraqi government to promptly fund operational needs, and a generational divide between seasoned — albeit rusty — pilots and the small group of rookie officers who are about to complete flight training.
Though small, modest and — for now — devoid of firepower, the Iraqi air force has a solid foundation and has given Iraqis something to be proud of, U.S. officials say. Iraqis, accustomed to U.S. helicopters that hover over their cities round-the-clock, wave excitedly when they see aircraft with the Iraqi flag.
“It’s a symbol of their government protecting them,” said Lt. Col. Mark Bennett, one of the U.S. trainers.
The Iraqi air force was among the best equipped and trained in the region when the country went to war with Iran in 1980. The eight-year conflict took a considerable toll on the force, but when the Persian Gulf War started in 1991, it still had hundreds of combat aircraft and skilled pilots operating out of dozens of bases.
The Iraqi air force, however, was no match for the U.S.-led coalition, which quickly crippled it. United Nations sanctions and regulations that came after the war prevented Iraq from acquiring spare parts for aircraft and from flying over much of the country.
When U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003, the air force was so weak that Saddam Hussein opted not to order the few remaining pilots and aircraft into the air. Some fighter planes were buried, and air force members, like others in the Iraqi military, vanished shortly after the invasion.
In 2004, the U.S. military gave the Iraqi government three of its old Hercules C-130s, a type of transport airplane. Around the same time, the Iraqi government began reaching out to former air force pilots and investing in new aircraft. With U.S. support, last year it opened a training school on the outskirts of Baghdad.
The Iraqi air force’s fleet currently has 76 aircraft, most of which were donated by the United States and other nations. Most are designed for training, transport and surveillance missions. Although the force has no fighter planes, U.S. military officials say Iraqi pilots will soon be allowed to carry out air attack missions.
“I’m a fighter pilot,” said Aziz, who has a deep, booming voice and often erupts in laughter as he jokes around with his American counterparts. “I’m dying to do this again.”
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