An Iraqi Air Force An-32 with bomb racks in June 2017. Iraqi Air Force
The Warzone/The Drive: Iraq's An-32 Cargo Planes Turned Bombers Flew Nearly Twice As Many Strikes As its F-16s
New data shows the impromptu bombers were heavily involved in fighting ISIS.
Following a recent strike its F-16IQ Viper multi-role jets flew against ISIS terrorists in neighboring Syria, the Iraqi Air Force has released a detailed infographic showing how many combat and combat support missions each of its aircraft types have flown over the past nearly four years. Of particular note is that the country’s An-32 cargo planes have conducted more airstrikes than either Iraq’s F-16s or its Aero L-159 Advanced Light Combat Aircraft, or ALCA, light attack jets.
The Iraqi Air Force released the infographic, with its text unfortunately only in Arabic, on its official social media accounts on April 23, 2018. But the statistics, which cover the period from June 10, 2014 to December 31, 2017, clearly show that the An-32s flew 990 strike missions during that time, almost twice that of the Iraqi F-16 fleet’s 514 sorties and nearly a sixth of the total missions that the aircraft conducted altogether. Neither figure is close to the more than 3,500 strikes that the country’s Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack aircraft flew in that same period.
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WNU Editor: I also suspect that these converted bombers were easier to maintain, and preferred by the commanders on the ground.
