Officially established on 22 April 1931, around a core of 5 pilots
and 32 aircraft mechanics, the Royal Iraqi Air Force was the first
military flying service in any Arab country. Coming into being with
the task of supporting the Iraqi armed forces and the British
against revolts by local tribes, it saw extensive combat and
gradually grew into a potent force. During the Anglo-Iraqi War of
1941, it became involved in its first conventional campaign in
support of an anti-British coup but was destroyed as a fighting
force. It was still recovering when deployed in combat again, this
time against Israel in the course of the Palestine War of
1948-1949. During the relatively quiet decade of the 1950s, the air
force experienced a rapid growth, further intensified once the
monarchy was toppled during the 14 Tammuz Revolution in 1958, and
once again, after two additional coups in 1963. During all of these
affairs, a dozen additional coup attempts in the 1960s, and then
during the long and bitter war against a Kurdish insurgency in the
north, and the next clash with Israel in 1967, the Iraqi Air Force
continued playing a dominant role in the fate of the country. The
situation changed only little following the coup of 1968 that
brought the Ba'ath Party to power. What did instrument a major
change was the air force's involvement in the October 1973
Arab-Israeli War, and then the showdown with the Iranian-supported
Kurdish insurgency in northern Iraq in 1974-1975. These two affairs
taught the Iraqis that numbers alone did not make an air force.
Correspondingly, during the second half of the 1970s, Baghdad
embarked on a project based on full technology transfer from
France, which was intended to result in preparing the IrAF for the
21st century. This process hardly began when the new ruler in
Baghdad, Saddam Hussein at-Tikriti, led his country into an
invasion of neighbouring Iran, embroiling it in a ruinous,
eight-year-long war. Amazingly enough, for the first few years of
that conflict, the IrAF still continued planning and growing as if
there was no conflict to fight, although frequently suffering heavy
losses while - due to the micromanagement from the government -
de-facto fighting with one hand tied to its backs. It was only the
experience of facing sustained and massive Iranian offensives of
the 1984-1986 period that prompted Baghdad into unleashing the air
force into an all-out campaign against the Iranian economy that
effected a turn-around in the war. Almost unexpectedly, the IrAF
emerged from the eight years of Iran stronger, better equipped and
better trained, and more experienced than ever before. However,
Saddam Hussein took care to remove all of its top commanders, and
replace them with his favourites, thus de-facto castrating the most
powerful branch of the Iraqi armed forces shortly before embarking
upon his ultimate adventure: the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The
resulting Second Persian Gulf War of 1991 left the IrAF in tatters:
mauled by sustained air strikes on its air bases, and cut off from
its former sources of equipment and training, it was never to
recover again, and rather vegetated for the last years of
existence, pending its ultimate destruction during the US-led
invasion of 2003. Although virtually 'born in battle', collecting
precious combat experience and playing an important role in so many
internal and external conflicts, the Iraqi Air Force remains one of
the least known and most misinterpreted military services in the
Middle East. Richly illustrated, Wings over Iraq provides a
uniquely compact yet comprehensive guide to its operational
history, its crucial officers and aircraft, and its major
operations.
General
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