Efforts to rebuild the Iraqi air force will take a big step forward this month when Cessna AC-208 Combat Caravans are cleared to start shooting laser-guided Hellfire missiles.

Rebuilding the service was always a tall order, and the task is even more difficult now that the coalition advisers have less time than initially envisioned to complete their activities.

When the U.S.-led team first started working with Iraqis to build their air force from the ground up, U.S. military planners thought the fledgling service would be able to fly on its own in 2016. But owing to the Iraqi-U.S. status-of-forces agreement—which specifies that U.S. troops withdraw by December 2011—only 26 months are left to finish the rebuilding task.

“What we are trying to do, given this reality, is to operationalize as many capabilities as we can in that short period,” says U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Kane, director of the Iraq Training and Advisory Mission in Iraq. However, he concedes, getting the job done in the timeline available “is a significant challenge.”

Complicating matters is the drop in the price of oil. Iraqi air force (IQAF) rebuilding efforts were already hamstrung by poor funding. And the situation has now worsened, according to Kane. Procurement and infrastructure tasks have largely remained on track, but money for logistics support has felt the pinch, leading to a curtailment in flight time.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael M. Donley dispatched an air-sovereignty assessment team to Iraq to look at a range of activities. Kane says the review largely validated the actions already planned.

Currently, IQAF capabilities range from a high degree of proficiency to rudimentary skills. Airlift activities have been ongoing since 2005 and now rely on three C-130Es; and except for some maintenance tasks, the advisory role will come to an end. “We are going to call this one mission completed,” says Kane. Iraq also has contracted for C-130Js, although they will not arrive until 2012. By then, the advisory mission will have ended unless the Iraqi government asks for an extension.

On the intelligence-collection side, operating the C-208 Caravans, Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350s and SAMA CH2000s also has progressed well. As a result, coalition advisers are focusing more on teaching the Iraqis how to exploit the sensor information.

Ground attack—which is seen as vital for the IQAF to be able to sustain counterinsurgency operations—also is gaining prominence. So far, only a small number of Mi-17s have been capable of firing unguided rockets. However, work underway since March with the Combat Caravans (three aircraft are now in place) should enable Iraqi crews to fire laser-guided Hellfires this month.

A primary focus of the training has been to help the Iraqis understand all aspects of the “kill chain” from target identification to designation, attack and battle-damage assessment. The Iraqis also are being trained to devise appropriate rules of engagement, says Kane.