Quote:
Originally posted by drunkmonkey
One thing that has really bothered me about this conflict so far is the total lack of the Iraqi Air Force. I have seen neither hide nor hair of its deployment.
the Iraqi Air Force was hit hard during the first Gulf War, I know. And the AL QUWWAT AL JAWWIYA AL IRAQIYA (IRAQI AIR FORCE) is notorious for playing cat and mouse instead of direct air-to-air combat, instead, relying on drawing fighters into surface-to-air zones. But Iraq still has a working air force with approx. 700 planes, with over 250 of them being attack aircraft (60 Mirage F1EQa, 100 MiG-21s and MiG-23s of various types with about 10 MiG-25s comprising the bulk of their attack aircraft). I have not heard one word about an attack by Iraqi planes or any Iraqi planes being captured or destroyed.
What are they waiting for?
I think Baghdad is going to be an interesting battle.
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Well, i can fill you in on this one. Firts we have the Mirage wich needs alot of maintenance hours and replacement pieces for it to be able to do long time operations. Same thing for the Migs, i think they need a revision every 2,000 flight hours or so. The engines of both aircrafts need to be replaced very often because they both work on a "clean inlet" meaning there is nothing inbetween the inlet and the engine itself. It sucks up all the dirt not to mention alot of desert sand. I think 9 out of 10 Iraqi military jets would crash in it's first 5 flight hours because they don't maintain them anymore, most are not air worthy anymore. They probably still have the aircrafts but they are not able anymore to make them air worthy.