H-3 Air Base
Military airfield in Iraq
H-3 Air Base (code-named 202C, 202D) is part of a cluster of former Iraqi Air Force bases in the Al-Anbar Governorate of Iraq. H3 is located in a remote stretch of Iraq's western desert, about 435 kilometers from Baghdad in western Iraq. It is close to the Syrian–Iraqi border, and near the highway that connects Jordan with Baghdad.
H-3 Main is supported by two dispersal airfields, H-3 Southwest 32°44′48″N 039°35′59″E, and H-3 Northwest 33°04′34″N 039°35′52″E, and a Highway strip, 42 kilometers to the west 32°50′55″N 039°18′28″E. H-3 Southwest is served by a single 9,700-foot runway and has a parallel taxiway that could be used as an alternate runway. Ruwayshid Air Base was previous used as another dispersal airfield.
History
H-3 airstrip was established by the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1935 as a landing ground for pumping station H3 on the Mosul–Haifa oil pipeline. The Jordanian H-4 Air Base is located at the next pumping station.
It was never a British Royal Air Force (RAF) air base although during World War II the pumping station and adjacent oil pipeline were patrolled by RAF Armoured Cars, together with RAF Iraq Levies based at H3 and RAF aircraft would have used the airstrip.
Iraqi Air Force
During the 1970s, it was one of several Iraqi airfields upgraded under project "Super-Base" in response to the experiences from Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and 1973.
Companies from Yugoslavia – previously engaged in building bridges in Iraq – became involved in airfield construction.
The public source identifies “H-3 Air Base” as military airfield in Iraq. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Base, Military and airfield.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “H-3 Air Base”, the useful work is to connect “military airfield in Iraq” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2278466. Authority coordinates are 32.929, 39.744. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 1967 and 1973.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “H-3 Air Base”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow H-3 Air Base primary sources, H-3 Air Base archive and Base research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “H-3 Air Base”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “H-3 Air Base” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.