Right now, the new strike capability for the Iraqi Air Force is flying out of a civilian airport in Fort Worth and will be delivered to Iraq starting in December.

Two Cessna Grand Caravan 208Bs, armed with a pair of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles each, were photographed flying out of Meacham Airport earlier this month. The field has no official military presence, but it is the home of a major ATK Integrated Systems major modification facility and the armed Caravan is one of its projects.

Also operating out of ATK’s shops are C-130s, a deHavilland Dash-8 and a Swearingen Metro IV all heavily modified for clandestine ISR operations, say those with knowledge of the field’s operations.

In Dec. the IqAF will receive the first three armed Cessna Caravans -- with laser designators for the missiles -- followed by two more in early 2009, says Brig. Gen. Brooks Bash, current chief of the coalition air force transition team.

The IqAF is already flying a number of unarmed Caravans for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), VIP transport and pilot training and it is expecting its armed Caravans by year’s end.

In July, the Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq signed over eight Cessna 172s as primary trainers and three Cessna Caravan 208s as advanced trainers to the Iraqi Defense Ministry for the Iraqi Air Force’s training program at Kirkuk AB. The plan is to train 130 new pilots annually. The service’s projected size is 6,000 airmen and 133 aircraft by late 2009.

The olive-drab Caravans have with no national markings, but they do carry an off-colored rectangle near the top of the vertical stabilizer where Iraq puts national flag markings on its military aircraft. The aircraft are fitted with an EO/IR surveillance sensor ball offset to the left side of the aircraft. The engine exhaust is offset to the right to avoid interference with the IR sensor. The sensor ball, targeting pods and missiles will be the same as those on the Predator UAV. A pod on the leading edge of the right wing of the Caravan holds a weather radar. The aircraft also has missile warning sensors on the tail and nose and what appears to be chaff and flare dispensers for self protection.