Mosul International Airport

Mosul International Airport
IATA: OSM – ICAO: ORBM OSM Location of airport in Mosul
Summary
Airport type		Public / Military
Operator		Iraqi Government, United States Army
Location		Mosul
Elevation AMSL		719 ft / 216 m
Coordinates		36°18′21″N 43°08′51″E / 36.30583°N 43.1475°E / 36.30583; 43.1475
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
15/33	8,695	2,650	Concrete

Mosul International Airport (IATA: OSM, ICAO: ORBM) is an airport located at Mosul, Iraq, with a concrete runway. It became a civil airport in 1992 with the construction of a new terminal. After undergoing major renovations to be able to reach international standards and category 1 status, it reopened as a civilian airport on December 2, 2007.

History

Established by the Royal Air Force in the 1930s while Iraq was under the League of Nations British Mandate. After the RAF left Iraq in 1969, it became a main air base of the Iraqi Air Force At least a squadron of MiG-21s was stationed there.

The military air base was one of several Iraqi Air Force airfields in the mid-1970s which were re-built under project "Super-Base" in response to the experiences from Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and 1973.

Originally, 13 airfields were re-built by British contractors, and on all of them also a number of hardened aircraft shelters was built. Subsequently companies from Yugoslavia - previously engaged in building bridges in Iraq - became involved. Due to their specific construction of these airfields - which included taxi-ways leading right out of Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) and laid diagonally to the runways - they became known as "Trapezoids" or "Yugos".

The facilities were divided into two categories: "surface" and "underground". The "surface" facilities were actually the "softest", and included maintenance hangars of metal construction, and HAS of concrete construction. In total, the Yugoslavs have built no less but 200 HAS on different airfields in Iraq during the 1980s.

The protection of each HAS consisted of one meter thick concrete shells, reinforced by 30 cm thick steel plates. There was only one entrance and this was covered by sliding doors, made of 50 cm thick steel armoured plate and concrete. The HAS' were usually built in small groups - seldom more than five, with each group sharing the same water and power supply, besides having own backup gasoline-powered electrical generator, and each HAS being equipped with a semi-automatic aircraft-refuelling system.

In addition, underground facilities that could shelter between four and ten aircraft on average were constructed. In order to build these the Yugoslavs used equipment and construction techniques identical to that use in underground oil-storage depots, additionally conealing the extension and the true purpose of the whole project. The underground facilities were all hardened to withstand a direct hit by a tactical nuclear bomb, buried up to 50 meters bellow the ground and consisted of the main aircraft "hangar" (consisting of two floors in several cases, connected by 40ts hydraulic lifts), connected with operations, maintenance, and logistical facilities via a net of underground corridors.

It was seized by Coalition forces in 2003 after Operation Iraqi Freedom. It became a United States Air Force facility, A-10s, F-16s and C-130s were stationed there. It's current military status is undetermined.^[1]

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Iraqi Airways	Dubai
Jupiter Airlines	Dubai, Istanbul-Atatürk
Royal Falcon	Amman-Marka

References

1. ^ Iraqi Super-Bases

External links

• Mosul International Airport at Global Security
• Mosul International Airport receives $10.3 million for upgrades
• Airport information for ORBM at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.