H-3 Highway Strip
The H-3 Highway Airstrip is one of three dispersal airfields in the H-3 base cluster located 435 kilometers from Bagdad in western Iraq. The main H3 airfield was originally built to support the H-3 oil pumping station. H-3 Main is supported by two dispersal airfields, H-3 Southwest, and H-3 Northwest, and a Highway strip, 42 kilometers to the west. H-3 highway strip is located 35 kilometers West-Southwest of H-3 main, 250 meters south of the XX XXX highway. There are no above ground aircraft revetments or buildings visable at 10-meter GSD. This highway strip appears to serve as an emergency dispersal strip should the runways of the other H-3 airfield be cratered in air strikes. The H-3 Highway strip consists of a single 9,800 foot runway.
As of 17 April, 20002, there is no Ikonos coverage of this target in the Carterra Archive.
Chemical weapons were stored at the H-3 airfield (main) during Desert Storm according to declassified U.S. intelligence reports which describe Iraqi efforts to disperse chemical weapons by truck to other locations. The S-shaped bunker located at H-3 airfield (main) and the four at the H-3 ammunition storage facilty were damaged or destroyed during Desert Storm. Of the 22 S-shaped bunkers located across Iraq, 10 had been destroyed as of 8 February 1991. It is not known whether the rest were subsequently destroyed.
| Imagery of the H 3 Highway Strip |
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Overview of the Middle East with Iraq in the center |
CIA Map of Iraq |
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Tactical Pilotage Chart of the H-3 Base Cluster |
Tactical Pilotage Chart of the H-3 Highway Strip |
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 Russian 1:200,000 Map of the H-3 Highway Strip |
 CIB imagery of the H-3 Highway Strip, as of 1995 |
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