Coalition air traffic controllers help Iraqis assume airspace responsibility

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A Black Hawk helicopter takes off Wednesday at Camp Liberty near Baghdad while a jet takes off from nearby Baghdad International Airport. Iraqi controllers have responsibility of daytime operations at this airport, another in Basra and everything above 24,000 feet.


Coalition air traffic controllers help Iraqis assume airspace responsibility
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, January 16, 2009

BAGHDAD — Coalition forces will retain control of most of the Iraqi airspace in use by the U.S. military despite the new security agreement’s push to transfer governing responsibilities to the Iraqis.

The security agreement gave Iraq sovereignty of its airspace starting Jan. 1. But the Iraqi government has determined that it is not fully capable of controlling everything at the moment, and has asked coalition forces to oversee everything below 24,000 feet sea level, Multi-National Force —Iraq officials wrote in response to Stars and Stripes’ questions.

The altitude limit should not affect U.S. Army helicopters because the aircraft do not fly that high. A Chinook can reach 20,000 feet and an Apache can reach 21,000 feet, according to manufacturer Boeing. Variants of the Black Hawk can reach 15,180 feet, according to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.

"Most of the controllers remain U.S. military controllers for now," said Col. Erik Peterson, commander of 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, which is assigned to Multi-National Division-North.

Less than half of Air Force flights have been affected by the agreement so far. In the first 12 days of January, an average of 101 coalition forces flights went above 24,000 feet each day, Maj. Timothy Johnson, spokesman for U.S. Air Forces Central, wrote in an e-mail. That’s 42 percent of the 243 coalition flights that occur on average each day. The flights above 24,000 feet could have been military aircraft passing through Iraq, tactical sorties in support of Iraqi security forces or logistics flights.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60045