Iraqi ambassador , Luqman al-Faili will travel to Lockheed factory in Fort Worth , Texas, on Thursday to attend the celebration made up by Lockheed and the U.S. government officially to hand over Iraq with the first plane F-16 .
A group of three or four new aircraft will be transferred to Iraq before the end of the year.
Faili told Reuters in a telephone call that , " Iraq is a big country as its borders extend to more than 3,600 km and we need to protect it . We as a country didn’t have those capabilities before."
Faili added that Iraq will complete the work at the air base in the country that will be the place for the new aircrafts . He said that some Iraqi pilots have already received training on the leading the new aircraft as they will be trained more now .
Iraq had submitted an order to buy the first group of 18 fighter aircraft F-16 compared to three billion dollars then a second order to buy another 18 aircraft in October.