Flying with Iraq’s King Air Spy Planes

The Iraqi air force was all but destroyed in the Allied air campaign in 1991; the few aircraft that survived were blown up or buried in the sand when U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003. For years afterward, the new Iraqi air force’s fixed-wing capability was represented by a mere handful of light planes — some equipped with simple cameras for surveillance, but none of them armed.

That began to change last year, when the Iraqi air force bought 10 sensor-equipped, armed Beechcraft King Air 350s, an aircraft design that is “an unlikely star of the Iraq war,” according to Defense Industry Daily. In addition to Iraq, the U.S. Air Force, Army and Marines, and the British Royal Air Force, have all recently bought King Airs for combat surveillance duty.

With training provided by Americans, the first Iraqi King Air crews — many of them former MiG-21 pilots — began flying operational sorties in May. The goal is to have 10 crews ready by May 2010, according to USAF Colonel John Rutkowski. In the meantime, the Americans are training Iraqi instructor pilots, and also recruiting young men to serve as sensor operators, for the King Air’s infrared and daytime cameras. “We developed a program that can take a person who has never seen a computer before and develop in them the ability to quickly learn the dynamics of a computer as well as the technology behind why the mission sensor equipment works,” USAF Staff Sergeant Josh Roden said.

The King Airs reportedly have wing hard-points for small bombs or missiles, but it’s not clear if they are carrying munitions yet. Instead, the Iraqi air force is using five Cessna Caravans armed with Hellfire missiles. In the next several years, Iraq will also buy Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 light attack planes, and eventually Lockheed Martin F-16s.

While most King Air missions are over land, searching for insurgents and directing Iraqi troops to engage them, the planes also have a secondary maritime role, prowling for suspicious vessels — possibly smugglers — on behalf of the Iraqi navy.


Source: by DAVID AXE - 25.08.2009 - http://www.warisboring.com

Photo: Iraqi Air Force King Air Spy Plane (Photo: via DID)

(25.08.2009)