Once mighty Iraq Air Force rebuilds – but pilots keep low profile

Once mighty Iraq Air Force rebuilds – but pilots keep low profile
Twelve thousand feet above Iraqi soil, piloting a propeller-driven Cessna AC 208B is so easy for Iraqi Air Force Lt. Col. Mustafa Kamil Khaleel that he barely blinks when the radar screen malfunctions. Khaleel, who racked up 1,300 hours flying supersonic Soviet fighter jets during two decades in the old Iraqi Air Force, is one of dozens of pilots flying the workhorse Cessnas but dreaming of F-16s.
Once the sixth largest in the world, Iraq’s Air Force was hit hard in the 1991 Gulf War and then grounded when the United States, Britain, and France seized control of Iraq’s airspace in the 1990s. Before the US invasion in 2003, Saddam Hussein was so intent on protecting his remaining fighter jets he buried them in the sand.
http://machbirds.blogspot.com/2009/12/once-mighty-iraq-air-force-rebuilds-but.html