Iran supplies Sukhoi 25 (Su-25) Frogfoot to Iraq

The Iraqi Ministry of Defence has released a video of Su-25s arriving in Iraq. These Su-25s are interesting as they are Iranian examples with their national insignia and tail registrations painted over. Although the national markings are painted over they have left the nose numbers that tie up to Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Air Force examples. The other identification feature is the camouflage scheme. If you look closely at the engine intakes you will see where the Iranian roundel has been painted over. Some of the Iranian Su-25s are ex-Iraqi examples flown to Iran in 1991.



The Su-25 with '56' on the nose is Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps serial 15-2456

Image of 15-2456 in full Iranian markings at following link.

www.airliners.net...

I wonder who they have in the drivers seats.....The sunnis under Sadam were probably the bulk of the air force pilots.....
I imagine Iranian jockeys as well as aircraft would be likely....

a reply to: stirling

Most likely a combination of Iranians and former Iraqi Su-25 pilots. The Iraqi Ministry of Defence announced that they had a number of pilots on charge that still had Su-25 experience. Iran has announced the death of an Iranian pilot in Iraq.

TEHRAN — State media reported Saturday that an Iranian military pilot was killed in Iraq, the first confirmation that Iranian forces are involved in the Iraqi government’s battle to repel an offensive by al-Qaeda-inspired extremists.

IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, did not provide details of how or when the pilot was killed but said he died defending holy places in the Iraqi city of Samarra, which is home to an important Shiite pilgrimage site.

Link

Mmmm! Maybe if the US had stumped up the weapons paid for by Iraq, they wouldn't need the Iranian support (not that it's a bad thing) and ISIS would not have made the gains they have so fast.

Found this report this morning that is a bit of an eye opener:

www.middleeastmonitor.com...

Iraq is trying to recover nearly $41 billion after the US has refused to deliver the F16 aircrafts the Iraqi government had paid for, Anadolu news agency quoted an Iraqi official as saying.

A member of the Security and Defence Committee in the Iraqi parliament, Hakim Al-Zamli, said: "The US has not complied with the agreement concluded with the Iraqi government to prepare and deliver the F16 aircrafts and Apache helicopters, as well as other weapons and materiel to combat terrorism, despite receiving more than $41 billion from the Iraqi government."

He added, "The US is not serious and is deliberately delaying the arming of the Iraqi army to combat terrorism in the country."

I've speculated before that I think the US line is that they want Maliki to fail, so they can install their own guy, Chalabi, famous for supplying them all the WMD BS to justify the invasion. Maybe that is the plan, wait for the Iraqi government to fail in the face of ISIS attacks then ride to the rescue, put Chalabi in place then send in the US forces to fight ISIS and then supply the paid for arms.

This little snippet really backs up my thoughts:

The US justifies the delay citing fears that the weapons might fall into the hands of ISIS militants.

Perhaps the ISIS militants wouldn't be where they are now if the US had supplied the aircraft, helicopters and other arms it was contracted to supply, and had been paid for!