Ali Air Base
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| Ali Base Tallil Air Base |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: n/a - ICAO: ORTL | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Military | ||
| Operator | U.S. Air Force | ||
| Serves | Nasiriyah | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 20 ft (6 m) | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 12L/30R | 10,935 | 3,333 | Concrete |
| 12R/30L | 9,991 | 3,045 | Concrete |
Ali Base (ICAO: ORTL) is an air base located near Nasiriyah, Iraq. It was formerly known as Tallil Air Base. It currently has United States forces on it. The base is also home to coalition forces from many nations, among them Australia, Romania and Uganda.
The airfield is served by two main runways measuring 12,000 and 9,700 feet. It was a fighter base before the 1991 Gulf War when it was heavily damaged. According to the "Gulf War Air Power Survey", Tallil had 36 hardened aircraft shelters. At the each end of the main runway are hardened aircraft shelters knowns as "trapezoids" or "Yugos" which were build by Yugoslavian contractors some time prior to 1985. Tallil occupies 30 square kilometers and is protected by 22 kilometers of security perimeter.
The 332d Air Expeditionary Wing was at Ali Base for a time before moving to Balad Air Base in January 2004. The 407th Air Expeditionary Group remains at Ali Base. The 407th Air Expeditionary Group operated C-130 Hercules and trained more than 100 Iraqi Airmen on how to maintain and fly the cargo airplanes until February 2005, until the Iraqi Air Force's 23rd squadron was fully trained and relocated to Kirkuk Air Base.
The ancient city of Ur is located within the security perimeter for Ali Base, and its ancient ziggurat is visible from nearly every area of the base.
[edit] External links
- Ali Times - 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
- 407th Air Expeditionary Group, GlobalSecurity.org
- photos
- Airplane Graveyard
- World Aero Data airport information for ORTL
- Map from MultiMap
- Satellite image from TerraServer
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