I do hope this will have a favorable outcome.
FREEPATHON
by the numbers
moving the last piece
Posted on 09/06/2015 7:35:39 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Iraq has put F-16 warplanes acquired from the United States into action against the Islamic State group for the first time, the commander of the air force said Sunday.
“Fifteen air strikes were carried out in the past four days,” staff lieutenant general Anwar Hama Amin said following a news conference in Baghdad.
“Smart weapons” were used in the strikes, Amin said, without specifying the type.
Khaled al-Obaidi, the defence minister, told the news conference that the strikes had achieved “important results” and that the jets will have “an impact on the conduct of operations in the future”.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
How long before ISIS captures them?
Exactly why I am reserving my enthusiasm.
Does Israel have any neutron warheads in their inventory, I wonder?
I see the death of their Brigadier General in a training accident a couple of months ago hasn’t put a damper on their enthusiasm for the Fighting Falcon. We’ll see how long the current airframes last.
Did the jets actually take off? Or did they just try to ram them into ISIS positions?
;-)
Are they being flown by Iraqis?
The article infers it.
“How long before ISIS captures them?”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Or Iraq simply hands them over to them. Perhaps trades them for some Yazidi women.
I’m guessing we provide the planes and ordinance then train the pilots who then defect with the planes to ISIS.
If this is true, and think it is for several reasons, the Iraqi Air Force would have carried out more air raids against ISIS in 4 days than the US did in a week or more.
ALso, Iraqi pilots would have been trained by US personnel, so they know that they are a very important tactical weapon against ISIS, and can make a difference to their forces on the ground.
Sort of like our Flying Tigers did in China at the beginning of WW2.
And perhaps even provide pilots, passing them off as locals for media and morale purposes, as the Soviets did in Vietnam,, spawning exceedingly un-PC Soviet jokes such as:
“Comrade Captain! What are the greatest challenges of aerial combat in Vietnam?”
—”Operating the controls with one hand while slanting my eyes with the other!”
That was my first question too. Where will ISIS pilots learn to fly them? Russia maybe?
“against Islamic State”?
Or against the Kurds?
Yeah, they were dropping sand bags with a return address and pre-paid shipping. So much for 'smart weapons'...........
I was thinking the same. Give them two weeks, max.
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