Iraqi Air Force

From Daily Escape

The Iraqi Air Force consists of 40,000 personnel; 30,000 personnel in the regular air force, and 10,000 men attached to its subordinate Air Defense Command. Headquartered in Baghdad, the air force's major bases are located at Basra, H-3 (site of a pump station on the oil pipeline in western Iraq), Kirkuk, Mosul, Rashid, and Ash Shuaybah. Iraq's more than 500 combat aircraft are formed into two bomber squadrons, eleven fighter-ground attack squadrons, five interceptor squadrons, and one counterinsurgency squadron of 10 to 30 aircraft each. Support aircraft include two transport squadrons. As many as ten helicopter squadrons are also operational, although these form the Army Air Corps. The Air Defense Command pilots the MiG-25, MiG-21, and various Mirage interceptors, and mans Iraq's considerable inventory of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).