Monday, December 24, 2007
CAFTT and the Iraqi Air Force In the News Again
USA Today published a brief review from our Commanding General and the Iraqi Air Force CG. The article has a lot of good numbers, but is not as positive in tone as it should be. It sounds more negative than positive.
The oddest quote is:
"Iraqi residents and politicians are disappointed by the lack of jets, Barzanji says. He says the public believes "Americans always give their friends airplanes. It looks like we are not friends to the United States." He says he hears the same from Iraqi government officials."
Of course, our boss countered with this great line:
"The first order of business is to defeat insurgents. Allardice says he has resisted Iraq's demands for a supersonic air force. "You could go buy jets, but you would just be parking them," Allardice says. It takes years to build the training and maintenance base to support jet fighter and attack planes."
LtGen Barzanji (AKA General Kamal for those of us who work with him daily) helped set up the IqAF plan to start flying jets no sooner than 2012 because they can barely feed and clothe their own Airmen, let alone fund the infrastructure necessary for Fighters. Not sure why he said this, but it's not surprising.
Either way, we're still kicking ass out here. The IqAF had a 1000% increase in sorties between Jan 2007 and Dec 2007. Not too shabby for a new and growing Air Force that just found its wings a year ago.
posted by El Capitan at 6:11 AM
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