Operation Airborne Dragon was a part of Operation Northern Delay in the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. 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. On 7 April 2003, Task Force 1-63 landed 5 M1A1 tanks, 5

Bradley Fighting Vehicles The Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) is a tracked armoured fighting vehicle platform of the United States developed by FMC Corporation and manufactured by BAE Systems Land & Armaments, formerly United Defense. It is named after U.S. General Omar B ...

, and a battalion command post at Bashur Airfield in northern Iraq. Much of the

Iraqi military The Iraqi Armed Forces ( ar, القوات المسلحة العراقية romanized: ''Al-Quwwat Al-Musallahah Al-Iraqiyyah'') ( Kurdish: هێزە چەکدارەکانی عێراق) are the military forces of the Republic of Iraq. They consist ...

capitulated 3 days later.

Units involved

The US forces were mostly made up of the 1st Battalion,

63rd Armor Regiment The 63rd Armor Regiment is an armored regiment of the United States Army formed in 1942. Lineage Constituted 3 May 1942 in the Army of the United States as the 745th Tank Battalion Activated 15 August 1942 at Camp Bowie, Texas Reorganized ...

, a subordinate unit of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.

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 Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

to Bashur Airbase along with 5 M1A1 tanks, 5

, and a battalion command post with satellite communications at Bashur Airbase transported by

C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of t ...

as the reinforcements to the

173rd Airborne Brigade The 173rd Airborne Brigade ("Sky Soldiers") is an airborne infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic response force for Eu ...

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 10 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 Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

forced the

Iraqi Government The federal government of Iraq is defined under the current Constitution, approved in 2005, as an Islamic, democratic, federal parliamentary republic. The federal government is composed of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as w ...

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.

References

{{coord missing, Iraq Military operations of the 2003 invasion of Iraq Military operations of the Iraq War involving the United States Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011) Kurdistan Region in the Iraq War