An F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft. Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki says the US is delaying the delivery of 36 of F-16 aircraft. Photo / Wikipedia - US Air Force
Iraq Buys Used Russian Fighter Jets Amid U.S. Delivery Delay -- Bloomberg
Iraq has bought used fighter jets from Russia and Belarus to battle Islamist militants after long delays in the delivery of F-16 planes from the U.S. left troops without air support, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.
Maliki, in an interview with BBC Arabic yesterday, blamed the U.S.’s “long, very slow way” for delaying the delivery of 36 aircraft. “We shouldn’t have just bought U.S. jets, we should have bought British, French and Russian jets to provide air support. If we had air support, none of this would have happened,” he said, according to excerpts e-mailed by the BBC.
Read more ....
Iraq Buys Used Russian Fighter Jets To Battle Islamist Militants
Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki: Russian jets will turn tide -- BBC
Iraq awaits arrival of fighter planes bought from Russia, Belarus -- UPI
Iraq buys used Russian fighter jets -- New Zealand Herald
Russian jets to aid the fight against Sunni rebels in Iraq – PM Maliki -- RT
My Comment: For these fighter jets to be effective .... Iraq will need spotters on the ground, a reliable communications network, and precision missiles. They may have the men on the ground, and maybe the necessary communications equipment .... but they certainly do not have the precision missiles.
Utterly pointless at this stage.
ReplyDeleteAlmost guaranteed they'll be needing to spend months training pilots to use these used Jets. If anything these Jets will probably fall in the hands of ISIS if ISIS succeeds in taking over Iraq, which by all accounts, still seems very likely at this stage.
I'm with you on this one Plowman.
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