Abstract
Once the strongest airpower in the Middle East, the Al Quwwa al Jawwiya al Iraqiya, or the Iraqi Air Force (IQAF), was powerless when the US invaded Iraq in 2003. After realizing the importance of the IQAF for Iraq’s future, the US began to rebuild it from scratch in 2004. Since then, the IQAF has made significant strides with help from the Coalition Air Force Training Team (CAFTT): the IQAF’s functional output has grown exponentially; Iraqi officers are commanding their own units; and Iraqi pilots are being recruited and trained. However, CAFTT struggled to effectively overcome many challenges, including American-perceived cultural barriers as well as an ongoing counterinsurgency (COIN) battle. Circumstances beyond US and Iraqi control caused these challenges. However, a lack of preparation by both players also fueled these struggles. Through a primarily American lens, this paper paints a panoramic picture of the new IQAF by analyzing CAFTT’s strategy, achievements, and failures. Specifically, personal interviews with US military officials offer insight into the less tangible difficulties that the US faced in rebuilding the IQAF. This insight enables a more in-depth critique, leading to the conclusion that the IQAF’s future remains gravely uncertain. Furthermore, it shows that the IQAF is neither independent nor sustainable, and it will rely on the US military for many years.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (linked here). By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are available for wide dissemination at no cost to readers, with proper attribution (acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal), in educational and other non-commercial settings. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process.
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