Al-Taqaddum Air Base
Al Taqaddum Airbase (Arabic: قاعدة التقدم الجوية) or Al Taqaddum AB (IATA: TQD, ICAO: ORAT), called TQ in military shorthand slang, is an air base that is located in central Iraq, approximately 74 kilometers (46 miles) west of Baghdad, at Habbaniyah. The airfield is served by two runways 13,000 and 12,000 feet (3,700 m) long. Since 2004, it has been known as Camp Taqaddum. ("Taqaddum" is an Arabic word which means "progress".) It was formerly known as Tammuz Airbase.
Al Taqaddum Air Base
Habbaniyah Plateau
FOB Ridgeway
The airbase was originally built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1952 as the subsidiary Plateau Airfield of nearby RAF Habbaniya, whose runway was inadequate for the larger long range and jet aircraft being introduced. The original RAF runway was subsequently extended by the Iraqis and a parallel runway added. Some of the RAF buildings (Nissen huts) were still standing in 2003.
History[edit]
Iraqi Air Force use before 1991[edit]
Al Taqaddum Airbase was known as "Tammuz Airbase" (Tammuz being the Assyrian month that the 14 July revolution happened in Iraq), and various Iraqi Air Force units and squadrons used it.
The airbase was bombed in Operation Kaman 99, the day after the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War.
Units and squadrons present before 2003:
Current use[edit]
The base is home to the 10th Division, Iraqi Army, and the Anbar Operations Command Center. Since 2015 part of the base was called Camp Manion which is home to Task Force Spartan which consists of I Marine Expeditionary Force and augments from Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command, as well as U.S. Soldiers with 1st Infantry Division, Airmen with 82nd EASOS United States Air Forces Central Command, and components of the Australian and Italian armed forces, with medical support from 772nd Forward Surgical Team, the 115th Combat Support Hospital and U.S. Navy Corpsmen with II MEF and SPMAGTF-CR-CC.[23]
On April 5, 2020, the US-led CJTF–OIR handed over the base to Iraqi security forces by the last Commander of Task Force Spartan, Col Scott Mayfield.[24][25]