Iraqi Hercs
 

This story passed me by but then so do most things these days....

Iraqi AF Hercs

They are rumoured to be in line for a whole bunch of pointy planes as well, something like 40 F-15s and 160 F-16s if the report I read was correct, though naturally these will be paid for from oil revenues, rather than being "gifts".

Dunno what the timeframe on those is. I would imagine the "current and ongoing situation" will be a determining factor.

:p

That explains why the Flight Engineer would spend half the flight pulling the pi$$ out of my radio calls :}

Incidently, the picture wasn't overly clear. I hope the Herc's have ASE fitted! :)

Bit posher than sacrificial meat pies eh?

Blood?

Dangerous goods. Have to ground the aircraft to check for corrosion damage.:E

"...40 F-15s and 160 F-16s..."

Shame the RAF doesn't have anything that good.

Applied for the exchange tour yet Stoppers??

"40 F-15s and 160 F-16s"

Bet they're all well chuffed in Eye-Ran! :*

LXGB

LXGB
<<Bet they're all well chuffed in Eye-Ran!>>
You hit the nail right on the head!

Go well with the MiG-29s and Su-24s if the Iraqis use their usual tactics, eh?

So it won't be Oman for the next 'joint' exercise then, it will be Iraq... Typhoons and Tornado's flying with Iraqi F-15's and F-16's (who will be probably trained by NATO) flying from bases we bombed the :mad: out of.
Does this mean that Europe and USA are again to be supplying 'aircraft and weapons' to Iraq..... oh, and we probably have to fix and re-supply all the air defences we knocked out over the past 14yrs and re-build all their airfields too!! :hmm:

So... we spent billions knocking them down, and we spend billions re-building them.....to defend against their own aircraft they scarpered with in 1991 across the border in eyeran...

:rolleyes:

Until they turn into a very naughty country again in about 10 - 15 years and they have to have the **** bombed out of them again!

Dont forget the wagon load of Swindnik SWL4 Helis just ordered from Poland (NATO member) either!!:oh:

Maybe they could use a sqn of Merlins. I hear they're good in the desert.

Hmm... what else could we sell the Iraqis...

Type 23's we are getting rid of...hmm have to fix the air conditioning first!
Type 42's we are getting rid of...
Jaguars, two squadrons about to be disbanded... the ones that destroyed the Iraqi navy in 1991.....
Gazelles about to be disbanded, the ones that spotted a load of Iraqi armour to be destroyed.... (ok only a few)
Challenger II's we are getting rid of, the ones that destroyed a load of Iraqi Armour....
Mr Hoon.....the one who destroyed our military....


Cheers

I think they only want smart bombs...

Rearmament?
 

For those with a casual acquaitance with Cold War history, doesn't this have a similarlity with the rearmament of Germany in the 1950s as a result of NSC 68? Probably prolonged the Cold War by another 20 years...

Without which the USSR and communism might not have pushed economically`past the point of collapse - and without having to fight an all out war. Not all of us saw that as a bad thing.

Worth every penny from my point of view. :E

Cold War
 

The Soviet leadership's greatest fear was a re-armed and re-emergent Germany, especially as there were justified concersn that (W) Germany wanted to acquire a nuclear capability. A fear, by the way, that was shared in London and Paris, for similar reasons to those in power in the Kremlin. See Trachtenberg 'A Constructed Peace' 1999 or John Gaddis 'We Now Know' 1997.

But, back to the thread. The Iraqi project, for this has been planned for many years, is best outlined in the recently-published 'America Alone' by Stefan Halper, a former Whitehouse insider. Iran is definitely not the flavour of the month...

It also flushed out all those Cambridge Spies - Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt... Perhaps there were others as yet undiscovered?