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H-2 Air Base (code-named 202B) is a former Iraqi Air Force base in the Al-Anbar Governorate of Iraq. It was captured by Coalition forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
H-2 is located in Southern Iraq approximately 350 kilometers West of Baghdad. The airfield is served by two runways 12,600 and 8,800 feet long. H-2 occupies a 41 square kilometer site and is protected by a 26 kilometers security perimeter. It was one of several Iraqi Air Force airfields built in the mid-1970s under project "Super-Base" in response to the experiences from Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and 1973.
Companies from Yugoslavia - previously engaged in building bridges in Iraq - became involved in airfield construction. 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.
The base was sized during Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003. It was attacked by Coalition air power on numerous strikes and many structures appear to be destroyed; with large numbers of bomb craters and destroyed buildings on the site. Aftrer the seizure of the base, the base was de-militarized with runways being torn up and all military equpment being removed and/or destroyed.
Current aireal imagery shows that the operational structures around the airfield appear to have been demolished and removed. Today the concrete runway and series of taxiways remain exposed and deteriorating to the elements, being reclaimed by the desert.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.