In its current fight against the Islamic State , Iraq has depended on outside forces for air operations. Iraq currently possesses a number of attack helicopters and Cessna Caravan planes armed with Hellfire missiles. On paper, Iraq operates a number of Su-25 ground attack aircraft, but most of those Su-25s are probably being flown by Iranians rather than by Iraqi pilots, and others could be flown by Russian or Ukrainian contract pilots. U.S. airstrikes have been effective in the fight against Islamic State militants, but Iraq is still far from establishing its own capability to conduct similar operations. The United States has been training Iraqi pilots to fly F-16 multirole fighters, but the actual delivery of these planes has not occurred yet and has been placed in doubt by political frictions and infrastructure issues. Iraq's dependence on outside forces for maintaining its air power is not new.