Operation Airborne Dragon

Operation Airborne Dragon was a part of Operation Northern Delay in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. US airborne troops seized Bashur air base in northern Iraq, and were then reinforced by air with tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. The combined force held the airfield until the arrival of ground forces.

Operation Airborne Dragon
Part of Operation Iraqi Freedom
Date7–10 April 2003
Location
Bashur Airbase, Iraq
Result Coalition Victory
Belligerents
United States Iraqi Insurgency
Commanders and leaders
Lieutenant Colonel Ken Riddle
Strength

First Wave:

173rd Airborne Brigade

Reinforcements:

Task Force 1-63:

1st Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment

5 M1A1 main battle tanks

5 M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles

5+ M113 armoured personnel carriers

Military Police Company

Combat Service Support Platoon

1 Battalion command post

Local Defences: Unknown

Regional Defences:

6 Iraqi Army and Republican Guard Divisions
Casualties and losses

US

Unknown ?

Equipment:

Unknown ?

Iraqi

Heavy

Equipment:

Multiple of tanks and armoured vehicles.
The first expeditionary insertion of a U.S. armored force into combat by air.

On 7 April 2003, Task Force 1-63 landed 5 M1A1 tanks, 5 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and a battalion command post at Bashur Airfield in northern Iraq. Much of the Iraqi military capitulated 3 days later.

Units involved

The US forces were mostly made up of the 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, a subordinate unit of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.[1]

Operation

On 26 March 2003 the US Airforce flew from Aviano AB, Italy to Bashur Airbase in Northern Iraq and deployed 950 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, who then proceeded to secure the airbase. The airmobile force initially faced no resistance from the Iraqi army as it didn't have any units it could deploy to face the Americans. Once the airbase was secure US forces Two days later, American soldiers from the 501st Forward Support Company, and the 173d Airborne Brigade's, Supply Support Activity (SSA) arrived at Bashur Airfield.

On 7 April 2003 Task Force 1-63 was transported from Europe to Bashur Airbase along with 5 M1A1 tanks, 5 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and a battalion command post with satellite communications at Bashur Airbase transported by C-17 Globemaster III as the reinforcements to the 173rd Airborne Brigade that had parachuted in earlier to secure the airbase from the Iraqi army. Once the airbase was secure the US airmobile forces and IRTF soldiers crushed organised Iraqi resistance in the north of the country by the 10th of April.

Aftermath

Operation Airborne Dragon shortened Operation Iraqi Freedom and saved the lives of many coalition soldiers. This was due to the fact that the deployment of coalition forces alongside Peshmerga troops in the north of Iraq forced the Iraqi Government to keep six divisions of Iraqi army in the north instead of being able to deploy them in the south to face the rapidly advancing US led coalition.

gollark: The box is lying.
gollark: DDR is "double data rate" - data is sent on the rising and falling edges of the clock signal or something.
gollark: But mostly it doesn't matter.
gollark: *Technically* DDR4-3000 is 1500MHz and 3000MT/s.
gollark: The 3000MHz/3000MT/s thing is mostly just nitpicking.

References
  1. "Operation Airborne Dragon, Northern Iraq" (PDF). Military Review. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 June 2007. Retrieved 7 November 2017.

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