FR WAR NEWS! WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!
All the News the MSM refuses to use!
Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!
Posted on 11/23/2009 4:09:28 PM PST by SandRat
KIRKUK — Lt. Col. Chris Spigelmire defines success as, "The better we do our jobs, the fewer people they'll send to replace us until we don't have to be here at all."
"The trick is," he added, "the Iraqi Air Force has to be able to do what we're doing without us around."
Spigelmire, deployed from Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, commands the 521st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron. He and his two dozen Airmen have two missions:
– Help Iraqis train their new pilot corps
– Prepare qualified Iraqi pilots to assume mission operations
"We're also training the trainers so Iraqis learn from Iraqis," Spigelmire said.
On the operations side, More than 35 Iraqi pilots are currently in flight training, learning how to fly intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Leaders at the Air Operations Center are already using the information from these missions in other operations, said Capt. John Ginn, an instructor pilot deployed from McGuire AFB, N.J.
"These pilots are the future of the Iraqi Air Force," Ginn said. "We're actually about a year ahead of schedule for getting them trained enough to take over many duties Americans have had here. For example, their flight commander is an Iraqi pilot instead of one of us. They're also taking requests from other units, who want ISR, and then planning and executing much of the missions on their own."
The 521st Airmen train Iraqis on two airframes in two squadrons. Squadron 1 employs the Cessna 172 and 208. In Squadron 3, their Cessna 208s have two configurations; the RC-208, outfitted for ISR missions, and the AC-208, outfitted for ISR and/or kinetic strike with the AGM-114 Hellfire missile. Squadron 3 fired their first Hellfire, Nov. 4.
"The Iraqi Air Force now has the strike capability needed for them to help protect their sovereign nation," Spigelmire said. "They're able to project air power on their own for the first time in years. It's a giant step for their military and their country."
Tech. Sgt. Patrick Baker, previously a crew member on the E-3 Sentry, has been in Iraq for the last year teaching the Iraqis to use the special sensor equipment on the Cessna 208s. But when Baker, deployed from Tinker AFB, Okla., goes home, he won't be replaced.
"There are four qualified instructors and two evaluators, so they don't need me," Baker said. "They've got the skills they need to train their own mission system operators now. Thanks to the NCOs before me, I can proudly say that I'm going home with this mission complete."
The Squadron 1 director of operations, an Iraqi colonel, is equally proud of the Iraqi pilots and the partnership they've forged with their American allies.
"Here we all work as a team," the colonel said. "My students are like my sons and they are better pilots after working with the Americans. I'm very honored to work with the United States Air Force. They helped us do the right thing for Iraq."
Stories like this are far more numerous and typical in the theater. Children are being educated, people are being healed, bridges are being built — Iraqis and Afghans are being empowered so we can go home and they can have their countries back.
None of these stories are interesting to our media, much less the international media. “If it bleeds, it leads” doesn’t cut it for an excuse. It is possible to tell these stories in an interesting manner.
They choose not to, hence we need to find out what’s happening by exchanging stories like this amongst ourselves. If stories like this do end up surfacing momentarily, they can be quickly dismissed: “Oh, you saw this story posted on Free Republic.”
The MSM is fully aware that these glaring omissions contribute undermining their credibility and reduces their audience, but they are willing to suffer these losses in their quest to manage information in the service of their ideological ends.
FR WAR NEWS! We pay for it and the Chinese get all that Iraqi oil. Sounds like a square deal. /sarcasm -off
First mention of IqAF 1st Training Squadron.
It does the fixed-wing basic flight.
12th Training Squadron does the rotary-wing training.
The Iraqis payed for the birds and the fuel.
We just provide personnel for training.
The US has not “given” any aircraft to Iraq to date.
Just sold them...
Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested providing used F-16s as an option to speed up equipping the Iraqi air force during a July 2009 trip to Iraq.
The exact meaning of providing has not been worked out to-date but one of the options under consideration by Gates is to determine if there are some of our F-16s that may be excess to our needs that could be transferred to Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, military deputy for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, who would be in charge of any program transferring retired F-16s to Iraq fighters, did not say whether the U.S. would lease the planes or give them to Iraq.
None of those F16s have been donated, leased, or sold to Iraq to date.
No movement whatsoever on that proposal to provide aircraft [that we plan to scrap in 2010/2011] to Iraq.
No congressional clearance or request for export permission to date.
What might happen in the future does not change that no US aircraft have been given to Iraq to date, only sold.
PS: That proposal was more of a loan, lease, or sell of worn out USAF aircraft with Iraq footing the bill of making them airworthy and shipping. There are reasons why we were removing them from service. Donating them to Iraq would be cheaper than the planned cost of scrapping them.
Excuse me but what US aircraft have been sold to Iraq? I will tell you before youu answer NADA, ZIPPO.
1st Squadron is equipped with C172 and C208s trainers sold to Iraq.
3rd Squadron is equipped with C208 ISR/LTA aircraft sold to Iraq.
12th Squadron is equipped with Jet Rangers sold to Iraq.
87th squadron is equipped with King Air 350 ISR/LTA aircraft sold to Iraq.
Pending Delivery:
23rd Squadron is awaiting delivery of six C130J purchased.
Currently equipped with 3 Jordanian donated C130Es.
15 T-6A trainers have been purchased and are pending delivery. Options for 5 more and 36 AT-6Bs exist.
24 Armed Bell407s with an option for 26 more have been ordered and start delivery in 2010. 3 unarmed versions are being delivered next month for pilot conversion training.
All of the above is on the Iraqi dime and purchased from the US.
Over half the aircraft purchased or being purchased by Iraq are from the US. None of the aircraft from the US were donated, only sold.
Not only that but the Mi17s bought from Russia were/are thru US FMS with the US taking its 3 percent commision fee.
Also, the ATC radars are also being bought brom the US.
No F-16s, which is where we began.
No Fighters bought, donated, leased or otherwise to date.
Just a lot of speculation in the press.
There is 18 Mirage F1s that were stuck in storage in France by the sanctions that are apparently going to be refurbished and delivered. They are Iraqi property. And the French are charging for the refurb and delivery.
The only aircraft given to Iraq were from Jordan:
3x C130E [23rd Sq] and 16x UH-1s [2nd Sq].
All other aircraft, the Iraqis have payed for, cash up front...
All of the aircraft in Iraq mentioned in this article were built on the basis of USAF Contracts awarded to Cessna , etc ..... The USAF paid for and owns the planes. That is fact not speculation. The USAF has transferred, not sold them, to IRAQ at this point in time.
There is 18 Mirage F1s that were stuck in storage in France by the sanctions that are apparently going to be refurbished and delivered. They are Iraqi property. And the French are charging for the refurb and delivery.
What do French 18 Mirage F1s stuck in storage in the early 1990s because of Operation Desert Storm, when Saddam Hussein was still in power, have to do with this conversation? Nothing.
The only aircraft given to Iraq were from Jordan: 3x C130E [23rd Sq] and 16x UH-1s [2nd Sq].
Not so, the Cessna solution being implemented by the Coalition Air Force Transition Team (CAFTT) have supplied IQAF with aircraft that the USAF contracted Cessna to build. The aircraft have been shipped to Iraq and transferred to, not sold to, the IQAF.
All other aircraft, the Iraqis have payed for, cash up front...
LOL!!! Well 2 things I know for sure, you have never worked on a government asset acquisition project and you are not a certified government KO (Kontracting Officer). No government acquisition industry team contract is ever paid for up front in cash EVER..
Have a great Thanksgiving. Over and Out.
They were purchased thru US FMS program.
To maintain transparancy and prevent corruption.
Iraq bought those aircraft. US FMS used USAF contracting, just like they do in all FMS avaition sales. Look up DSCA’s site. These were all FMS contracting paid for by Iraq, complete with Congressional notification of sales...
You might take your own advice. I suppose you think that all US FMS is US gifts to the world. The USG took a 3 percent service fee for handling all of those sales. Just like all US Foreign Material Sales [FMS] contracts...
Iraq has no credit.
GoI puts the money in an escrow account in the US.
DSCA pays the contracts from those accounts.
GoI is paying up-front.
DSCA is adminstrating the payments on delivery of services and returning funds not expended.
Including taking their 3 percent service fee.
That lack of credit is the single biggest delay in rebuilding the ISF.
I have been tracking ISF developments since 2005. Most of these deliveries I have seen the public notices of intent to Congress, the contract award notices, some of the contracts themselves, press releases from the companies and the military on deliveries, etc...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.