Strategypage explains why the Iraqi air force still sucks:
The Iraqi Air Force is not very effective. It not for lack of trying. The government has spent billions to buy new aircraft, support equipment and weapons (including Hellfire missiles). Money isn’t the problem, people are. During decades of rule by the Sunni minority (the last Sunni leader being the late Saddam Hussein) the Sunnis monopolized most technical jobs. That included flying aircraft and maintaining them. With the overthrow of Saddam most of those Sunnis fled the country and many of those who stayed were not trusted by the Shia majority (who now controlled the government.) The Shia now had plenty of access to all those good tech and management jobs the Sunnis had long monopolized. The problem was that not enough Shia had the skills or experience to handle all the high tech work now available.
Amazingly, they say that Iraq has three planes capable of firing Hellfire precision missiles! Three!
Given time, Iraq will have an acceptable air force--compared to likely regional opponents, of course. The air force became acceptable under Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War. At the start of that war, it sucked, too.
Then it sucked because Saddam was afraid of even his Sunni pilots taking a shot at him with a low pass or an attempt to carpet bomb a palace. So Saddam hadn't let his bombers practice bombing. Which made Iraq's attacks on Iran's airfields at the start of Iraq's invasion completely ineffective.
So the current Shia-dominated government can hardly afford to trust Sunni pilots and ground crews with precision weapons that might put a Hellfire into a pool where Maliki is sunning himself some quiet afternoon.
And who knows if all the Shias are reliable, eh?
So the Iraqis need time to get their air force trained, the sense to do what Gulf states do with foreign contractors (since we aren't there to help).
And hopefully some American armed drones to help with the al Qaeda jihadis their troops are facing right now. Or are you telling me there aren't enough jihadis to fill a "kill list" right there in Fallujah alone?
