keith willshaw

Probably because the pilots didnt want to die.

They were so outmatched that taking off would have been
a fancy way of committing suicide.

Keith

bob mckellar

And they were expecting all those WMD to win the war in 45 minutes.

Bob McKellar

philh

Plus they were ordered to bury the planes in sand.

--
"It's easier to find people online who openly support the KKK than
people who openly support the RIAA" -- comment on Wikipedia
(Email: <zen20000@zen.co.ku>, but first subtract 275 and reverse
the last two letters).

brooksvmi

I'd guess that it was not only the pilots who decided that this would
be a wasted effort. All of those aircraft found hastily buried in the
sands were presumably intended to allow some kind of reclamation after
this conflict, which would indicate that Saddam thought he stood some
chance of escaping this with his rule intact. Brooks

cub driver

Nobody ever said the Iraqis were suicidal.

(They got and get most of their suicide fighters from elsewhere.)

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: pipercubforum@eudoramail.com

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

tom cooper

Yes, and it was quite a strong and capable air force, especially in 1987-1988.


What the US have fought this year was the IIIPGW: the terminus "Persian Gulf
War" comes from the Iraqis, and was for the first time used by them during
negotiations with the US and Saudi representatives, in April 1991.

The reason the IrAF was disolved in the weeks before the war were unrests
within its ranks. Already in October 2002 there was a coup attempt against
the regime, when a MiG-23-pilot - instead of flying to the training ground -
took a course to the Saddam's residence at the Tharthar Lake (some 250km NW
of Baghdad) - and bombed the place. Saddam survived, and his bodyguards shot
the MiG down using MANPADs. The pilot was first mercilessly interrogated,
then burned alive by Saddam personnaly.

Subsequently, the IrAF was purged (for at least 15th time since 1979): some
300 officers were executed, and then most of the air force was inactivated -
with exception of two squadrons (one of which was equipped with MiG-25s:
these have shot down a USAF RQ-1B Predator, in December last year). This
didn't matter a lot to Saddam at the time, as already since years he
considered the ADC ("Air Defence Command", which was an independent arm
since the reorganization in 1998) far more important that the IrAF.


With very few exceptions (most of these dead already since the war with
Iran), Iraqi pilots never had a problem with "dying" for their country - if
this was needed (if you need a confirmation, try to find out more about
their losses during the last three years of the war with Iran): they only
had an immense problem with "dying for Saddam".


The IrAF suffered less than 50% losses in aircraft in 1991, but it suffered
extremely heavy losses in qualified personnel: some of the most experienced
pilots were shot down and killed in combat, others defected to Iran, some
also to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. In 1990, 1992 and 1993 there were also
massive purges of the IrAF, so that by 1994 it has lost almost all of its
really good pilots, especially those with combat experience from the war
with Iran (actually, only a handfull was left, all of these concentrated
within the MiG-25-units). The IrAF never recovered from thsese blows. By the
late 1990s a new generation of pilots was trained: these, however, have got
four times as much ideological training, as theory and flying. Consequently,
they were no match for their Western opponents. After additional unrests and
the coup-attempt last year, there was simply hardly anything left of the
IrAF.

Tom Cooper
Co-Author:
Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988:
http://www.acig.org/pg1/content.php
and,
Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat:
http://www.osprey-publishing.co.uk/t...hp/title=S6585

hobo

Iraq once had an airforce, including many MiG-29s which are commonly
considered to be as good as an F-16.

At the beggining of the air campaign the Iraqi AF HQ was destroyed. The
famous video of a bomb going down the ventilation shaft was of the HQ
being destroyed. This left the AF in disarray. The coalition forces then
quickly downed many Iraqi aircraft.

Iraq then decided to stop trying to fight the coalition in the air. Most
of the remaining Mig-29s, the pride of their fleet, were flown to Iran
in the hopes that Iran would return them after the war. They never did.

By the second GW Iraqs airforce was worthless.

alan minyard

They realized that "you fly, you die" when going up against the USN
and USAF

Al Minyard

steve hix

They were just expecting to use the aircraft after the war, when they
rebuilt their new Air Force.

david bromage

Don't leave out the RAF and RAAF!

Cheers
David