On the evening of 16 January 1991, Americans held their breath as the first broadcasts of air attacks against Iraq reached the news services. Up until that moment, the information available to the public regarding Iraqi air force (IQAF) capabilities centered on a comparison of numbers tending to ignore other factors influencing combat capability. Consisting of nearly 1,000 combat aircraft, Saddam Hussein’s air force might significantly raise the stakes of the war.

Instead, Iraq’s performance in the air might best be described as a no-show. No air defense, no strike missions, and no support of the army all combined to...

The organization of a country’s air force relies on three parts: leadership, command and control (C²), and force structure. A nation’s leadership by itself can have a significant effect on the military, either positive or negative. For example, the US military certainly experienced change in the form of growth under the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Likewise, Egypt’s forces showed considerable modernization when their leadership switched from Gamal Abdel Nasser to Anwar Sadat. Leadership often drives the other two segments of organization-C² and force structure-and bears close examination.

In the case of Iraq, the leadership of the military was in the...

Training is the education of military forces while developing them into an effective fighting machine. While the leadership of a country controls its military organization, the quality of training in military forces has a similarly significant impact on effectiveness. Air power is perhaps the form of warfare most sensitive to the education level of its forces. Almost any nation can place small arms in the hands of its countrymen and organize them into an army, but the technical aspects of aviation place severe requirements on lesser developed nations.

Military training is not the only aspect of schooling a country faces...

Access to arms is a problem for nonindustrialized nations. This issue is more acute under the new world order as the Soviet Union backs away from its client-state policies of the past. Military effectiveness is the ability of a military establishment to "consistently secure the resources required to maintain, expand, and reconstitute itself."¹ While some lesser-developed countries manufacture weaponry, usually in the form of small arms and ammunition, only the most technically advanced nations can sustain a viable aviation industry. This gap in industrial capability leaves the third world highly dependent on imports for its air forces. Securing these resouces...

The war between Iraq and Iran lasted nearly the entire decade of the 1980s and was the longest conflict of this century. It resembled World War I with its static front, trench warfare, and high loss of life. Air power also played a comparable role in each of these wars--always present. but never decisive. Instead, its nature vacillated as the combatants experimented with a variety of roles for their aircraft. In World War I neither side developed what might be called an air power doctrine, but equipment, strategy, and employment progressed enough to establish the aircraft as a useful weapon...

The failure of third world air power is exemplified by Iraq’s performance in its war with Iran. In terms of meeting the requirements of USAF doctrine, Iraq’s organization and equipment seemed generally effective, but the IQAF’s training left significant holes in its ability to employ its aircraft during the war. On the surface it appears that a better educational structure in Iraq would solve the air force’s shortcomings, but a closer inspection reveals its true vulnerabilities.

Leadership in Iraq is so politicized that flexibility and responsiveness of command and control are nearly neutralized. Even with more capable equipment, the over...