The US has confirmed that UAE has stopped conducting aerial missions against ISIL because the nation fears for the safety of its pilots. US officials have also confirmed that the Arab nation has not conducted any combat mission against ISIL insurgents in Syria since December 2014. Nonetheless, the US still considers UAE as an integral, valuable and dependable contributor to the anti-ISIL coalition.
This leaves Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia as the only Arab states actively engaging in combat missions – as part of the US-led coalition- against ISIL. UAE’s move comes after ISIL militants shot down a Jordanian fighter plane and captured its pilot, 26-years old Moaz al-Kassasbeh, on December 24th 2014. He was eventually burned alive by ISIL after Jordan failed to secure his release.
UAE is currently demanding that the US improves its search-and-rescue capabilities and also use the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft closer to the battlefield instead of basing mission stations far away from the theater of war. UAE is particularly insistent that both the vertical lift and aerial combat capabilities of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft must be upgraded before its fighter pilots can rejoin the coalition aerial campaign against ISIL.
The other members of the US-led aerial campaign against ISIL are the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Denmark, Canada and Belgium. About 80% of the coalition air strikes conducted so far have been carried out by the United States Air Force.
