List of Iraqi Air Force aircraft squadrons

Squadrons are the main form of flying unit of the Iraqi Air Force (IqAF).

Malovany writes that the first flying squadron of the air force was established in 1932 at Mosul, equipped with 20 Audax and Gipsy Moth aircraft, and the second squadron at Rasheed Air Base in 1933 with 10 de Havilland Dragons.[1]

Night flying certification for the UH-1 crews of the Iraqi 2nd Squadron

• 1st Squadron (Iraq)
  • Postwar - Hawker Sea Fury. Malovany cites a 1992 anniversary interview with the Air Force commander, Lieutenant General Muzahim Sa'b Hassan al-Tikriti, who said that the 1st Squadron sent a flight of Avro Anson aircraft to the Mafraq airbase in Jordon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and flights of Sea Furies to the Damascus airport and to Egypt.[2]
  • 1961 - de Havilland Venom FB.1[3] (Habbaniyah AB)
  • 1977-78 - Sukhoi Su-20 "Fitter C", stationed at Kirkuk with 28 aircraft in operational use (British Air Attache, July 1978 via The National Archives).
  • 1980 - "as of September 1980, ..No. 1 Squadron was still equipped with 16 out of 18 Sukhoi Su-20s Iraq acquired in 1973."[4]
  • 2002 - Squadron 1 was located with the Air Force College in the Abu Gharaib area, flying Embraer EMB 312 Tucanos.[5]
  • 2011 - 1st Sq was renumbered 201st Squadron during March 2011.[6]
• 2nd Squadron (Iraq)
  • 1961 - Mil Mi-4[3] Rasheed Air Base. The squadron was established that year.[7]
  • 1964 - Mi-4 & Westland Wessex[8]
  • 1977-78 - Mil Mi-8, Rasheed Air Base (British Air Attache's report, July 1978).
  • The squadron was reestablished at Taji in 2004-05 flying donated Jordanian UH-1s, but suffered severe spares shortages. "The mission failure at Taji should have come as no surprise, if only because it happened in slow motion and in full view. Its immediate cause was a lack of spares, but that shortage was only the latest in a lengthy series of neglects. In a detailed end-of-tour analysis submitted in late June [2005], departing 6th SOS advisor Major William Denehan pulled no punches. He wrote, “IqAF 2nd Squadron is currently non-functional.. ..Aircraft acquisition was poorly managed, unplanned, and unsupported... [and] overall IqAF development has been severely neglected and poorly managed”.[9]
  • "A year after a number of Huey IIs were delivered to an Alabama-based contractor, the first shipment of five rebuilt helicopters returned to Iraq on 16 February [2007].[10] Following several days’ reassembly and flight testing at NAMAB, they were turned over to Squadron 2 at Taji. Over the next few months, several were occasionally flown back to NAMAB, Phoenix Base, and Baghdad’s Green Zone to take Iraqi defense officials aloft for the benefit of the press; these excursions were moments of considerable pride for the IqAF.[11] Otherwise, the Hueys were used to train Iraqi airmen. Although the rebuilt aircraft had been factory equipped with protective armor, they remained within Taji’s airspace for the first several months. This restriction was not imposed from an excess of caution: between 20 January and 3 March, Iraqi insurgents had shot down or damaged eight US helicopters.65 As a result, it was not until 10 April that two Iraqi pilots made Squadron 2’s first flights outside Taji’s perimeter. Those sorties included live-fire exercises using externally mounted machine guns.[12] Five more aircraft arrived at NAMAB on 2 May, and the final six were airlifted in from the United States on 29 July, by which time Squadron 2 had accumulated about 1,300 flying hours in training missions, passenger movement, and infrastructure protection and assessment."[13]
  • Listed by D.J. Elliott at Taji with Bell UH-1s in November 2009 and May 2010.[14][15]
  • Scramble.nl does not list the squadron as operational in January 2019. The UH-1s may have been transferred to the army.
• 3rd Squadron (Iraq)
  • 1961 - Antonov An-12B (Rasheed AB)[3]
  • 1964 - An-12, de Havilland Dragonfly, Antonov An-2, Bristol Freighter, de Havilland Heron, de Havilland Dove[8]
  • 1977-78 - Antonov An-24/26 "Coke", Baghdad International Airport/Muthanna, 13 in operational use (BAA 1978).
• 4th Squadron (Iraq)
  • Formed at Kirkuk flying Gloster Gladiators in 1937. (Malovany)
  • 1961 - Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (Kirkuk Air Base)[3]
  • 2005-06 - forming at Camp Taji, planned to receive Bell Huey II helicopters.[16]
• 5th Squadron (Iraq)
  • 1961 - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F (Rashid AB)[3]
  • 1980 - MiG-21MF, possibly MiG-21F-13.[17]
  • April 1988 - Sukhoi Su-22[18]
• 6th Squadron (Iraq)
  • 1961 - Hawker Hunter (Habbaniyah AB)[3]
  • 2002 - Mikoyan MiG-29 "Fulcrum" interceptor aircraft flying from Habbaniyah.[5]
• 7th Squadron (Iraq)
  • Postwar - Hawker Sea Fury
  • 1961 - MiG-17F (Kirkuk)[3]
• 8th Squadron (Iraq)
  • 1961 - Ilyushin Il-28 (Rasheed AB)[3]
• 9th Squadron (Iraq)
  • 1961 - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19, in process of formation.[3]
  • 1980 - MiG-21MF, possibly MiG-21F-13.[17]
  • 2015 - At Balad Air Base flying the Lockheed Martin F-16C.
• 11th Squadron (Iraq)
  • 1961 - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (Rasheed Air Base)[3]
  • 1964 - MiG-21[8] A pilot of this unit defected in 1966 in "Operation Diamond", flying a MiG-21 to Israel.
• 12th Squadron
  • 1980 - MiG-21MF, possibly MiG-21F-13.[17]
  • 2005-06 - Bell Jet Ranger flying training operations at Camp Taji.[19]
• 14th Squadron
  • 2002 - MiG-21 fighter-bombers flying from Al Habbaniyah airfield.[5]
• 17th Squadron
  • 1980 - MiG-21MF, possibly MiG-21F-13.[17]
• 18th Squadron
  • 1980 - MiG-21MF, possibly MiG-21F-13.[17]
• 23rd Squadron (Iraq)
• 33rd Squadron (Iraq) - Scramble.nl reports that it was flying Antonov An-32Bs (six aircraft) from New Al Muthanna/BIAP circa 2017-2018.[20]
• 36th Squadron - Tupolev Tu-22 "Blinder", c.1977-1980 and afterwards.[21]
• 44th Squadron - flying Sukhoi Su-22 in April 1988.[18] Possibly located at Al-Taqaddum Air Base just before the start of the Iraq War, in 2003.[22] Still flying Su-22s from Habbaniyah in 2002.[5]
• 69th Squadron (Iraq) - flying Sukhoi Su-22 in April 1988.[18]
• 70th Squadron (Iraq)
• 73rd Squadron (Iraq) - Habbaniyah, 2002.[5]
• 79th Squadron (Iraq) - Mirages in late 1980s.[18]
• 81st Squadron (Iraq) - Mirages in the late 1980s.
• 87th Squadron (Iraq)
• 89th Squadron - flying Dassault Mirage F1 in 1988.[18]
• 91st Squadron - flying Dassault Mirage F1 in 1988.[18]
• 109th Squadron - flying Sukhoi Su-22 in April 1988.[18] Su-25s from Habbaniyah 2002.[5]
• 115th Squadron (Iraq)
  • 2015 - Aero L-159 Alca (Balad Air Base)
• 201st Squadron - training, redesignated from 1 Training Squadron in 2011.[23]
• 202nd Squadron - training, formed after 2008

In September 1980, reconnaissance units included "MiG-21Rs of No. 70 Squadron based at Rashid air base in Baghdad and also Su-22s from 44th Squadron (Iraq) at Firas air base in Mosul."[4]

In 1988, the 79th, 89th, 81st, and 91st Squadrons flew Mirages.[18]

201, 202, 203, and 204 Squadrons are post-2005 training squadrons.[24]