During Operation Iraqi Freedom, six Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II squadrons participated in the initial 26 days of combat flying nearly 2000 sorties from land bases in Kuwait and five of the Navy's big deck amphibious carriers. As the front lines rapidly moved northward towards Baghdad further away from the ships, the Harrier squadrons faced the problem of getting aerial refueling as high demand by other Coalition aircraft made tanking capacity scarce.

An out-of-action Iraqi air base at An Numaniyah was set up as for forward operating base to refuel the Marine Harriers. As the base's runways had been knocked out by Coalition air attacks, only the Harrier could use the base due to its unique V/STOL abilities. On 8 April 2003 a section of AV-8B Harrier IIs from VMA-542 landed at An Numaniyah at night, becoming the first Coalition tactical jets to touch down on Iraqi soil.

Source: Air Forces Monthly, August 2009. "Marine Harriers Over Iraq" by Warren E. Thompson, p80-81.

The first generation of UAVs had their start with Leigh Dugmore Denny, a Hollywood actor with Paramount Studios. Denny had a passion for radio-controlled aircraft and even opened a hobby shop on Hollywood Boulevard. In 1934 he founded Denny Industries to build RC model planes and quickly realized that there would be military potential for his models. The following year he founded Radioplane Company and would later secure a large contract to build aerial targets during the Second World War.

In 1952 Radioplane was acquired by Northrop and became the Radioplane Division and by the 1960s, it would be renamed the Ventura Division of Northrop, still engaged in the manufacture of UAV aircraft. In 1968, the year after Denny passed away, the Ventura Division delivered the first MQM-74/BQM-74 Chukar to the US Navy. By the time of Operation Iraqi Freedom, over 5000 Chukar UAVs had been built. Some were even used in Desert Storm as well as Iraqi Freedom to lay chaff corridors for inbound strike aircraft.

Source: Attack of the Drones: A History of Unmanned Aerial Combat by Bill Yenne. Zenith Press, 2004, p15-31.