Free Republic

Iraq, which has no combat aircraft, will be vulnerable to an air attack for at least a year after American troops leave at the end of 2011, the spokesman for US forces in the country said on Wednesday. While Iraqi forces will largely be able to deal with any internal security threats after the US withdrawal, Brigadier General Jeffrey Buchanan told AFP the country will be at risk of airborne attack until at least 2013, when it hopes to take delivery of F-16 US fighter jets. "There's a potential; there will be a gap in their capability that they would...

The top U.S. commander in Iraq said he expected the United States to meet a long-standing Iraqi request for new Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 multi-role fighter aircraft, although not as soon as Baghdad had sought. "We're still working our way through that, but I think they will be new ones" rather than refurbished F-16s, another option that has been under review, Army General Ray Odierno told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday. The U.S. Air Force has been quiet for months on the status of an assessment it carried out last year on Iraq's air defense needs and whether it...