Saddams orders for Iraqi Air force

[NZLAV]

When the coalition forces invaded Iraqi in 2003, Saddam Hussein orded his air force to dis-emble. Why did he do this? Saddam Hussein had a powerful air force that could have downed a lot of US and British aircraft.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Air_Force
Statement: On the brink of the US invasion, Saddam Hussein disregarded his Air Force's wishes to defend the country's airspace against U.S. aircraft and ordered the bulk of his fighters disassembled or buried. Some were later found by US excavation forces around the al-Taqqadum and Al Asad air bases, including MiG-25s and Su-25s

 

[contedicavour]

When the coalition forces invaded Iraqi in 2003, Saddam Hussein orded his air force to dis-emble. Why did he do this? Saddam Hussein had a powerful air force that could have downed a lot of US and British aircraft.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Air_Force
Statement: On the brink of the US invasion, Saddam Hussein disregarded his Air Force's wishes to defend the country's airspace against U.S. aircraft and ordered the bulk of his fighters disassembled or buried. Some were later found by US excavation forces around the al-Taqqadum and Al Asad air bases, including MiG-25s and Su-25s

Well the whole air force would have been destroyed in a few days anyway... so it would have been suicidal though may be somewhat patriotic/heroic to try to defend the airspace...
What puzzles me more is why did he send most of the air force to Iran, a mortal enemy for so long !? He should have hidden them by dispersing them in the reliable Sunni heartland, or sent them to Syria !

cheers

 

[.pt]

The only thing that comes to mind is this:
The Americans will invade us, and will eventually overcome us, so, instead of destroying all our warplanes, why not handle them to the only people that will probably use them sometime in the future against them? even if its the hatred Iranians...
And, indeed, the Iranians are probably the only ones with the balls and crazy enough to really fight the Americans to death, should the ocasion present itself... certainly not the Syrians.
.pt

 

[contedicavour]

The only thing that comes to mind is this:
The Americans will invade us, and will eventually overcome us, so, instead of destroying all our warplanes, why not handle them to the only people that will probably use them sometime in the future against them? even if its the hatred Iranians...
And, indeed, the Iranians are probably the only ones with the balls and crazy enough to really fight the Americans to death, should the ocasion present itself... certainly not the Syrians.
.pt

You're probably right. Though if Saddam hoped he could resist the invasion (his army was after all quite impressive and the bulk of the Republican Guard was very loyal), he would have sent the planes to a country most likely to hand them back...
What this implies is that Saddam knew he had lost before the fight. Otherwise he wouldn't have sent the planes to a country from which they would never come back...

cheers

 

[WAR]

Well there is no another time. A country maintains her armed forces to mainly defend (at times for offence) at the time of threat. American threat was imminent from the day one.

Why Saddam ordered to bury the Aircrafts? This is a million dollar question. And only he can elaborate. But what apparantly seems is that, he was busy in negotiation, and was quite hopeful to strike a deal, but failed.

But even though you are in negotiation, you cannot do such things. This act of Saddam was very much dubious in nature. But again. only he can put the record straight.

 

[Big-E]

Burying those planes in the sand is just as bad as being hit by a JDAM. He was just saving the trouble of us destroying them. He could have at least given them to Syria, they might have given them back.

 

[.pt]

Perhaps he wanted to force some GI s to DIG:rolling

 

[atilla]

maybe he wanted

to send them syrıa and syrıa dıdnt accept ?????

 

[Manfred]

Good one, .PT!

I think it comes down to who bid the highest. Money talks...

 

[RubiconNZ]

Basing

to send them syrıa and syrıa dıdnt accept ?????

I think if that was the case Syria would be afraid of incurring US wrath, certainly Aircraft flying to Syria would fo strengethend a WMD debate not to mention given the Allies possible cause to Strike Syrian assets for directly supporting the Sadam regime.

 

[.pt]

About those buried planes, what types and quantity are we talking about?
Where they significant, or potencially significant in the fighting that took place afterwards?
And the ones that were disassembled? Were they all found and acounted for?
.pt

 

[atilla]

and also how many send ro iran ??? actualy does ıraqı pilots went there too...thıs ıs why ın these days ıran ıs showıng ıts aır force alot ??????

 

[Big-E]

and also how many send ro iran ??? actualy does ıraqı pilots went there too...thıs ıs why ın these days ıran ıs showıng ıts aır force alot ??????

I don't think he sent any the second time. He knew he wouldn't get them back.

 

[PlasmaKrab]

and also how many send ro iran ??? actualy does ıraqı pilots went there too...thıs ıs why ın these days ıran ıs showıng ıts aır force alot ??????

Shady business, really. The aircrafts involved were mainly the most modern present (MiG29, Su24, MiG25, Su25, Mirage-F1...).

Figures vary, but you can get a blink of the picture in looking at which types of aircraft Iran purchased in Russia in the 90s. In most cases they had some Iraqi models to start up with (which they never returned, by the way).

This ACIG article suggests that 24 Mirage-F1EQs "plus three planeloads of spares" were shipped to Iran.

Also got this from GlobalSecurity's IRIAF study:

At least 115 combat aircraft flew to Iran, out of the total of 137-149 aircraft flown to Iran or crashed enroute [including 15 Il-76s and some number of civilian airliners]. According to an official Iraqi statement, the aircraft included 115 combat aircraft, among them 24 Mirage F1s, 4 Su-20 Fitters, 40 Su-22 Fitters, 24 Su-24 Fencers, seven Su-25 Frogfoots, nine MiG-23 Floggers, and four MiG-29 Fulcrums. Reports that Saddam Hussein ordered 20 Tu-22 bombers to Iran appear unfounded.

But we all know the strange relationship between Iraqi high-ranking officials and reality...

P.S. look up ACIG's Persian Gulf database for more info on the whole business, don't know how reliagble it is (f.e. I know that many would object to the story of the Iranian F-14s).