WASHINGTON -- The United States has urged Iraq to use its new military aircraft in the war against Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.
Officials said Washington was pressing the Iraq Air Force to begin using its new fleet of C-130J air transports, which arrived in Baghdad in 2013. They said the C-130J was designed for a range of missions, including air drops to infantry units and stranded civilians.
"They do what they can do and we fill the gaps they have in capabilities," Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
In an address to a Washington defense conference on Nov. 19, Dempsey, who just returned from Iraq, said the United States was pressing the Iraqi military to expand operations. He said the Iraq Air Force was equipped with three C-130J and other tools for the war against ISIL. In August 2013, the last of the C-130Js was delivered by U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
During his visit, Dempsey recalled, the Iraqi military requested a U.S. air drop of of supplies for civilians stranded on Mount Sinjar. He said U.S. military advisers responded that Baghdad could conduct such a mission with the C-130Js.
"Turned out all they needed was the expertise to rig the parachute extraction system that would do the air drop," Dempsey said. "That's the right answer."
Dempsey said the Iraqi military and security forces were pushing ISIL from strongholds around Baghdad. But he said the U.S. military, with more than 3,100 troops, was preparing to expand Iraqi air operations, particularly in support of ground forces.
"They are doing much better, but they have some deep structural vulnerability that must be fixed," Dempsey said.
