Posted on 05/16/2007 11:59:20 PM PDT by ASC2006
Iraq's Air Force should have 50 to 60 helicopters by the end of the year, including 28 new Russian aircraft, Iraq's defence minister said on Saturday as he inspected two refitted Vietnam-era Huey helicopters in Baghdad.
Rebuilding Iraq's armed forces is a key plank of U.S. policy as Washington seeks to hand over responsibility for security so it can start to reduce its troop numbers four years after the invasion. But lack of equipment has plagued the process and the Air Force in particular has had to be rebuilt from scratch.
The $3.5 million cost to refit a 35-year-old Huey compares to $5.9 million for a new Black Hawk configured for the U.S. Army or $5.5 million to $7.5 million for a new Russian MI-17, depending on the configuration, U.S. officials said.
"This is like a new aircraft, a new helicopter, with new systems and high power," said Brigadier General Mohammed Shati, a pilot who flew one of the Hueys from their base in Taji.
Training is already under way at Taji, just north of Baghdad and the Air Force has around 1,000 personnel, including 100 pilots, as well as three C-130 transport planes donated by the United States and 10 two-seater reconnaissance planes.
Iraq's Air Force was once the envy of its Arab neighbours, with hundreds of Russian fighter jets, particularly during the war with Iran in the 1980s, but no jets remain in service.
Asked when the Air Force would have fighter jets, Ubeidi said: "We are planning for that in 2008."
He declined to say whether U.S, Russian or other makers might win lucrative contracts to supply them.
(Excerpt) Read more at liveleak.com ...
Israel.
American jets and support would work great in Iraq, I think French or Russian choppers would work too.
A couple pin point strikes with long range bombers might put their nuclear program back a little while, but wouldn’t effect anything else. The last time Iran and Iraq got into a war Iraq wiped out much of Iran’s military infrastructure and bombed the hell out of Iranian cities as well.
Yes, I recall those events.
Today we the nations of the West like Israel and the US conduct nice air war campaigns like we saw last summer in Lebanon, which do something, but not nearly enough to win a war.
Boy, we’d better sell those planes to them fast, before they all sink into a quagmire. Shouldn’t we Senator Reid?/sarc
Then the Jews could go home and we could give candy to the children that had not had bombs strapped to their bodies and sent packing towards the Jews on Iraqi land. The Iraqi's left standing would be more Americanized and could defend themselves by then.
In Texas we are allowed to bait our quarry.
We have our own large pro-US militia in Anbar fighting on our side. They would clean things up much quicker if we equipped them and armed them instead of leaving most of it to the Iraqi government.
Ramadi and much of Anbar is secure today because of the ASC.
Well, it was just a thought. I try to think out of the box when things get bogged down. Like greasing your M-16 with bacon drippins in front of some Muzzies and mentioning it's a new policy. In about a week, they would all know about it and go home to keep from getting shot. It seems Jimmy Dean is more frightening than lead poisoning.
US support.
And after the Democrats force the withdrawal of our troops, these helicopters should last for a week or two.
With oil trading as high as it is, it would see that Iraq should be able to afford to rebuild their own military - along with their cities. And all this with the current limited oil production.
So, what have we heard from the Bush administration about our success in ending the black market corruption?
What questions have we heard from Congress?
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.