U.S. Awards Major Contract to Keep Iraq’s F-16 Fighter Jets Fully Ready for Regional Security
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The U.S. has approved a significant support contract to maintain and sustain Iraq’s F-16 fighter fleet at Martyr BG Ali Flaih Air Base. The agreement strengthens Baghdad’s air readiness and signals a deeper long-term defense partnership with Washington.
According to a U.S. Department of War contract announcement dated 21 November 2025, the Department has awarded a $252,050,925 contract to Vectrus Systems LLC to sustain Iraq’s F‑16 program at Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih Air Base (formerly Balad Air Base) north of Baghdad. The agreement, issued under the Foreign Military Sales framework, provides base operating support, life-support services, and security for the Iraqi F-16 fleet through September 2026, with nearly $124 million in FMS funds obligated at award. Beyond a technical sustainment package, the contract reflects a deliberate effort by Washington to keep Iraq’s air arm operational and aligned with Western standards at a time of heightened confrontation with Iran and persistent militia threats across the region.
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The U.S. has approved a landmark support contract to keep Iraq’s F-16 fleet flying, boosting Baghdad’s air readiness amid ongoing regional tensions (Picture Source: U.S. Air Force)
Structurally, the deal is a cost-plus fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity services contract that consolidates base support functions into a single, long-term framework. Vectrus is tasked with running core base operations, utilities and life-support systems, airfield and hangar services, warehousing and fuel management, and the layered security architecture around the airfield. In practice, this means a unified contractor presence responsible for keeping power, water, housing, and communications stable while ensuring that maintenance crews, weapons specialists, and aircrews can work under predictable conditions. The cost-plus model prioritizes availability and continuity of service rather than one-off deliverables, which is especially important for an airbase that must remain fully functional under fluctuating threat levels and political pressures.
Operationally, the award extends a pattern seen over the past decade at Balad/Martyr Ali Flaih, where successive U.S. contractors such as Sallyport and Acuity have provided base operations support for the Iraqi F-16 fleet. Earlier episodes of contractor withdrawals following rocket attacks by Iran-aligned militias demonstrated how sensitive Iraqi F-16 readiness is to external logistics and security scaffolding: when U.S. technical teams temporarily left Balad in 2021 over militia threats, reports indicated that the fleet’s operational rate fell sharply as Iraqi crews struggled to absorb complex maintenance tasks. The new Vectrus contract aims to avoid such discontinuities by locking in a single provider through 2026, with responsibilities spanning both daily sustainment and force protection, thereby making the support ecosystem less vulnerable to short-term shocks.
The choice of Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih Air Base is central to understanding the contract’s strategic weight. The installation, located roughly 60 to 70 kilometers north of Baghdad in Salah al-Din province, hosts Iraq’s F-16IQ squadrons and serves as the main hub for fixed-wing strike operations, including recurring sorties against Islamic State remnants in Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, the Hamrin mountains and along the Syrian border. During the campaign against ISIS, Iraqi F-16s operating from Balad conducted cross-border strikes into Syria in coordination with coalition forces and neighboring governments, underscoring the base’s role as a launchpad for precision airpower beyond Iraq’s borders. At the same time, the airbase has repeatedly been targeted by rocket fire and indirect attacks attributed to Iran-aligned factions, wounding Iraqi personnel and foreign contractors and exposing systemic vulnerabilities in perimeter security and counter-rocket defenses. Investing heavily in base security and life-support at this particular site therefore addresses both an operational requirement and a long-standing protection gap.
The geopolitical context gives the contract a broader meaning than routine sustainment. U.S. strategy documents and policy analyses have repeatedly framed support to partner militaries, particularly in Iraq, as a tool to constrain Iranian influence by strengthening state institutions and reducing the leverage of armed non-state actors. In 2025, this approach has unfolded against a backdrop of renewed U.S.–Iran confrontation, including U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and Iranian threats to retaliate against American bases and personnel across the region, with Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq and Al-Udeid in Qatar cited as potential targets. Washington has also tightened pressure on Iraqi Iran-aligned militias, recently designating several of them as foreign terrorist organizations after years of rocket and drone attacks on bases hosting U.S. and coalition forces. Within this environment, ensuring that Iraq’s main F-16 base is well-protected, professionally run, and tightly plugged into U.S. logistical networks can be read as an investment in crisis resilience on Iran’s western flank.
From Washington’s perspective, keeping Iraq’s F-16 fleet credible serves multiple overlapping objectives. At the tactical level, Iraqi F-16s remain a key asset in the campaign against ISIS cells hiding in rugged terrain, where airstrikes are often the only way to hit dispersed targets without committing large ground formations. At the operational and strategic levels, a functioning Iraqi fighter arm gives the U.S. and its partners more options for burden-sharing in regional contingencies, including surveillance, defensive counter-air, and limited precision strike tasks in scenarios where direct U.S. involvement might be politically sensitive. Should tensions with Iran escalate further, a capable Iraqi air force operating from hardened, U.S.-supported bases would complicate Tehran’s planning by adding another set of friendly airfields and potential air defense nodes west of Iranian territory and along key approach corridors to the Gulf and Levant. While Baghdad officially maintains a policy of neutrality and has called for de-escalation between Washington and Tehran, the physical reality of a U.S.-supported F-16 base north of Baghdad inevitably factors into any Iranian assessment of U.S. and partner airpower in the theater.
For Iraq, the contract supports a delicate balancing act between asserting sovereignty, maintaining security partnerships, and managing domestic sensitivities over foreign military presence. Iraqi leaders continue to signal that foreign combat missions are ending, with coalition structures being wound down and U.S. troops redefined as advisers. Yet Baghdad has also repeatedly requested continued technical support for its F-16 fleet and other high-end capabilities that it cannot yet sustain independently. The decision to route this support through an FMS-funded, government-to-government contract rather than ad-hoc commercial arrangements underlines that Iraq’s leadership sees the F-16 program as a long-term pillar of national defense, not merely a legacy of the anti-ISIS campaign. By locking in base support and force protection through 2026 at Martyr Ali Flaih, the Iraqi government gains time and stability to expand its own cadre of technicians, logisticians, and security forces capable of eventually assuming a larger share of responsibility.
The airbase itself is evolving into a symbol of this transition. Built up as a major U.S. hub during the Iraq War, Balad later became the main garrison of the Iraqi Air Force’s 9th Fighter Squadron and the center of gravity of the F-16IQ fleet. Repeated attacks by militias between 2019 and 2021, often timed with spikes in U.S.–Iran tensions, showed how exposed such a concentration of assets could be. The new contract’s emphasis on security services, integrated base defense, and resilient life-support can therefore be read not only as routine outsourcing but as a deliberate effort to harden one of Iraq’s most important military installations against both indirect fire and political disruption. Strengthening Martyr Ali Flaih as a secure, functioning node in Iraq’s air defense and strike architecture helps ensure that any future drawdown of U.S. uniformed personnel does not automatically translate into a collapse of Iraqi air capabilities, as occurred when contractors withdrew in earlier years.
The arrangement also reflects a maturing of the Iraqi–U.S. defense relationship. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base manages the contract, embedding Iraq’s F-16 program in the same oversight structures that handle long-term sustainment for other allied fleets. The use of FMS funds, combined with a sole-source award to a contractor with prior experience at the same base, signals a preference for continuity and institutional memory over competition at any cost. This model mirrors transitions elsewhere, where partners that field Western fast jets but lack deep maintenance ecosystems rely on sustained contractor support to achieve acceptable sortie rates and recovery times after incidents, gradually internalizing more tasks as their own air forces build capacity.
The Vectrus contract at Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih Air Base is more than a technical sustainment package for Iraq’s F-16s. It consolidates base operations, life-support, and security at the country’s principal fighter hub; it addresses long-standing vulnerabilities exposed by militia attacks and previous contractor withdrawals; and it embeds Iraq’s airpower more deeply in Western logistical and institutional networks. In the wider strategic picture, the investment supports Iraq’s counter-ISIS mission, anchors a key state partner within a U.S.-led security architecture designed partly to manage and deter Iran, and ensures that even as formal coalition structures evolve, Baghdad retains a credible, interoperable air arm. The result is an airbase that is better protected, an F-16 fleet that is more likely to remain operational, and a bilateral defense relationship that is quietly repositioning itself for a future in which Iraq is expected to stand on its own, while still being ready for regional crises that may yet revolve around Iran.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
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The U.S. has approved a significant support contract to maintain and sustain Iraq’s F-16 fighter fleet at Martyr BG Ali Flaih Air Base. The agreement strengthens Baghdad’s air readiness and signals a deeper long-term defense partnership with Washington.
According to a U.S. Department of War contract announcement dated 21 November 2025, the Department has awarded a $252,050,925 contract to Vectrus Systems LLC to sustain Iraq’s F‑16 program at Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih Air Base (formerly Balad Air Base) north of Baghdad. The agreement, issued under the Foreign Military Sales framework, provides base operating support, life-support services, and security for the Iraqi F-16 fleet through September 2026, with nearly $124 million in FMS funds obligated at award. Beyond a technical sustainment package, the contract reflects a deliberate effort by Washington to keep Iraq’s air arm operational and aligned with Western standards at a time of heightened confrontation with Iran and persistent militia threats across the region.
The U.S. has approved a landmark support contract to keep Iraq’s F-16 fleet flying, boosting Baghdad’s air readiness amid ongoing regional tensions (Picture Source: U.S. Air Force)
Structurally, the deal is a cost-plus fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity services contract that consolidates base support functions into a single, long-term framework. Vectrus is tasked with running core base operations, utilities and life-support systems, airfield and hangar services, warehousing and fuel management, and the layered security architecture around the airfield. In practice, this means a unified contractor presence responsible for keeping power, water, housing, and communications stable while ensuring that maintenance crews, weapons specialists, and aircrews can work under predictable conditions. The cost-plus model prioritizes availability and continuity of service rather than one-off deliverables, which is especially important for an airbase that must remain fully functional under fluctuating threat levels and political pressures.
Operationally, the award extends a pattern seen over the past decade at Balad/Martyr Ali Flaih, where successive U.S. contractors such as Sallyport and Acuity have provided base operations support for the Iraqi F-16 fleet. Earlier episodes of contractor withdrawals following rocket attacks by Iran-aligned militias demonstrated how sensitive Iraqi F-16 readiness is to external logistics and security scaffolding: when U.S. technical teams temporarily left Balad in 2021 over militia threats, reports indicated that the fleet’s operational rate fell sharply as Iraqi crews struggled to absorb complex maintenance tasks. The new Vectrus contract aims to avoid such discontinuities by locking in a single provider through 2026, with responsibilities spanning both daily sustainment and force protection, thereby making the support ecosystem less vulnerable to short-term shocks.
The choice of Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih Air Base is central to understanding the contract’s strategic weight. The installation, located roughly 60 to 70 kilometers north of Baghdad in Salah al-Din province, hosts Iraq’s F-16IQ squadrons and serves as the main hub for fixed-wing strike operations, including recurring sorties against Islamic State remnants in Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, the Hamrin mountains and along the Syrian border. During the campaign against ISIS, Iraqi F-16s operating from Balad conducted cross-border strikes into Syria in coordination with coalition forces and neighboring governments, underscoring the base’s role as a launchpad for precision airpower beyond Iraq’s borders. At the same time, the airbase has repeatedly been targeted by rocket fire and indirect attacks attributed to Iran-aligned factions, wounding Iraqi personnel and foreign contractors and exposing systemic vulnerabilities in perimeter security and counter-rocket defenses. Investing heavily in base security and life-support at this particular site therefore addresses both an operational requirement and a long-standing protection gap.
The geopolitical context gives the contract a broader meaning than routine sustainment. U.S. strategy documents and policy analyses have repeatedly framed support to partner militaries, particularly in Iraq, as a tool to constrain Iranian influence by strengthening state institutions and reducing the leverage of armed non-state actors. In 2025, this approach has unfolded against a backdrop of renewed U.S.–Iran confrontation, including U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and Iranian threats to retaliate against American bases and personnel across the region, with Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq and Al-Udeid in Qatar cited as potential targets. Washington has also tightened pressure on Iraqi Iran-aligned militias, recently designating several of them as foreign terrorist organizations after years of rocket and drone attacks on bases hosting U.S. and coalition forces. Within this environment, ensuring that Iraq’s main F-16 base is well-protected, professionally run, and tightly plugged into U.S. logistical networks can be read as an investment in crisis resilience on Iran’s western flank.
From Washington’s perspective, keeping Iraq’s F-16 fleet credible serves multiple overlapping objectives. At the tactical level, Iraqi F-16s remain a key asset in the campaign against ISIS cells hiding in rugged terrain, where airstrikes are often the only way to hit dispersed targets without committing large ground formations. At the operational and strategic levels, a functioning Iraqi fighter arm gives the U.S. and its partners more options for burden-sharing in regional contingencies, including surveillance, defensive counter-air, and limited precision strike tasks in scenarios where direct U.S. involvement might be politically sensitive. Should tensions with Iran escalate further, a capable Iraqi air force operating from hardened, U.S.-supported bases would complicate Tehran’s planning by adding another set of friendly airfields and potential air defense nodes west of Iranian territory and along key approach corridors to the Gulf and Levant. While Baghdad officially maintains a policy of neutrality and has called for de-escalation between Washington and Tehran, the physical reality of a U.S.-supported F-16 base north of Baghdad inevitably factors into any Iranian assessment of U.S. and partner airpower in the theater.
For Iraq, the contract supports a delicate balancing act between asserting sovereignty, maintaining security partnerships, and managing domestic sensitivities over foreign military presence. Iraqi leaders continue to signal that foreign combat missions are ending, with coalition structures being wound down and U.S. troops redefined as advisers. Yet Baghdad has also repeatedly requested continued technical support for its F-16 fleet and other high-end capabilities that it cannot yet sustain independently. The decision to route this support through an FMS-funded, government-to-government contract rather than ad-hoc commercial arrangements underlines that Iraq’s leadership sees the F-16 program as a long-term pillar of national defense, not merely a legacy of the anti-ISIS campaign. By locking in base support and force protection through 2026 at Martyr Ali Flaih, the Iraqi government gains time and stability to expand its own cadre of technicians, logisticians, and security forces capable of eventually assuming a larger share of responsibility.
The airbase itself is evolving into a symbol of this transition. Built up as a major U.S. hub during the Iraq War, Balad later became the main garrison of the Iraqi Air Force’s 9th Fighter Squadron and the center of gravity of the F-16IQ fleet. Repeated attacks by militias between 2019 and 2021, often timed with spikes in U.S.–Iran tensions, showed how exposed such a concentration of assets could be. The new contract’s emphasis on security services, integrated base defense, and resilient life-support can therefore be read not only as routine outsourcing but as a deliberate effort to harden one of Iraq’s most important military installations against both indirect fire and political disruption. Strengthening Martyr Ali Flaih as a secure, functioning node in Iraq’s air defense and strike architecture helps ensure that any future drawdown of U.S. uniformed personnel does not automatically translate into a collapse of Iraqi air capabilities, as occurred when contractors withdrew in earlier years.
The arrangement also reflects a maturing of the Iraqi–U.S. defense relationship. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base manages the contract, embedding Iraq’s F-16 program in the same oversight structures that handle long-term sustainment for other allied fleets. The use of FMS funds, combined with a sole-source award to a contractor with prior experience at the same base, signals a preference for continuity and institutional memory over competition at any cost. This model mirrors transitions elsewhere, where partners that field Western fast jets but lack deep maintenance ecosystems rely on sustained contractor support to achieve acceptable sortie rates and recovery times after incidents, gradually internalizing more tasks as their own air forces build capacity.
The Vectrus contract at Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih Air Base is more than a technical sustainment package for Iraq’s F-16s. It consolidates base operations, life-support, and security at the country’s principal fighter hub; it addresses long-standing vulnerabilities exposed by militia attacks and previous contractor withdrawals; and it embeds Iraq’s airpower more deeply in Western logistical and institutional networks. In the wider strategic picture, the investment supports Iraq’s counter-ISIS mission, anchors a key state partner within a U.S.-led security architecture designed partly to manage and deter Iran, and ensures that even as formal coalition structures evolve, Baghdad retains a credible, interoperable air arm. The result is an airbase that is better protected, an F-16 fleet that is more likely to remain operational, and a bilateral defense relationship that is quietly repositioning itself for a future in which Iraq is expected to stand on its own, while still being ready for regional crises that may yet revolve around Iran.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
