Pat Dollard | Young Americans

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Iraq’s air force is undergoing a tentative revival under tight U.S. military control with a small but growing corps of pilots already flying their own missions, the top U.S. air commander in the Gulf said Monday.

Iraqi pilots fly U.S. planes with surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, but no firepower, and mainly conduct transport and observation flights, said Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, the air commander at the Qatar-based U.S. Central Command.

They also do training for air patrols against sabotage of oil pipelines and electrical grids, he said.

North told reporters the Dubai International Airshow—where the U.S. is exhibiting military aircraft deployed in operations over Iraq and Afghanistan—that the Iraqi pilots were flying “right now with their own crews in combat and combat support operations.”

Since the program began in 2005, the U.S. has committed 400 trainers to “insure the Iraqi Air Force moves forward,” North said.

The Iraq air force used to be one of the most potent in the Arab world, and fighter pilots were usually selected among Saddam Hussein loyalists. The force was disbanded with the rest of the Iraqi military following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

North said the U.S. had received a list of requirements from the Iraqi government to develop its air defense capacities. The U.S. will study how to help Iraq’s air force and defense to rearm for combat missions, but only “sometime in the future, well into the future,” he said.

The entire Iraqi air force currently counts 1,350 personnel, including pilots, mechanics and ground staff, said Col. David Penny, the commander of the U.S. 370th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group, in a phone interview from Iraq.

“Through aggressive growth, we hope to reach 5,000 in two years time,” said Penny whose unit was involved in training the Iraqi pilots at Baghdad’s international airport as well as Kirkuk air base in the north, and Basra in the south.

(AP)