Iraqi air defenses to have two-year ‘gap’

The U.S. general in charge of training Iraq’s fledgling air force said Monday that there are no plans to have American aircraft protect the country’s airspace when U.S. forces depart next month.

The Iraqi air force is in the process of acquiring 18 F-16 fighter jets from the U.S., but the jets and pilots won’t be ready for at least two years, according to Maj. Gen. Russell J. Handy, commander of the 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force-Iraq, and director of the Air Component Coordination Element-Iraq.

That means Iraq’s 5,000 airmen, its collection of Cessna 208B airplanes — the same ones used by FedEx — a handful of cargo planes and its largely unarmed helicopter fleet will be on their own in a rough neighborhood.

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