Al Taqaddum Airbase (), or Al Taqaddum AB , (Called TQ in military shorthand slang), is an air base that is located in central Iraq, approximately 74 kilometers (46 miles) west of Baghdad, at Habbaniyah. The airfield is served by two runways 13,000 and long. Since 2004, it has been known as Camp Taqaddum. ("Taqaddum" is an Arabic word which means "progress".) It was formerly known as Tammuz Airbase. The airbase was originally built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1952 as the subsidiary Plateau Airfield of nearby RAF Habbaniya, whose runway was inadequate for the larger long range and jet aircraft being introduced. The original RAF runway was subsequently extended by the Iraqis and a parallel runway added. Some of the RAF buildings (Nissen huts) were still standing in 2003. History Iraqi Air Force use before 1991 Al Taqaddum Airbase was known as "Tammuz Airbase" (Tammuz being the Assyrian month that the 14 July revolution happened in Iraq), and various Iraqi Air Force units and squadrons used it. The airbase was bombed in Operation Kaman 99, the day after the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War. Units and squadrons present before 2003: 14th Squadron Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 73rd Squadron Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 6th Squadron Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 5th Squadron Sukhoi Su-22 105th Squadron Sukhoi Su-25s 109th Squadron Sukhoi Su-25s Fifty-one different Iraqi Air Force aircraft were found hidden under camouflage nets near al-Taqaddum by the Australian Special Air Service. Although still only scant details are known about these aircraft, US and British military sources reported that these 51 aircraft included three MiG-25s (including a single MiG-25PU two-seater), a Su-25K and a Su-7U, a MiG-29, several F-7Bs and Su-22UM-3Ks, as well as one Ilushin Il-76 transport. U.S. forces also found the hulks of five remaining Iraqi Tupolev Tu-22B "Blinder" supersonic bombers. All were still sitting in the revetments where they had been hit and destroyed by Coalition air attacks in 1991. Near them the wreckage of the Adnan-1 AEW aircraft, a third example was found, also destroyed by air attacks in 1991, as well as the wreck of the last Iraqi Tu-16 or H-6D bomber, which survived 1991, and was made operational in 2000 again: this old bomber was observed in flight – together with the sole surviving Iraqi Su-24MK – as late as February 2003, but was then obviously hit by US air strikes. The last Iraqi Su-24MK was apparently captured intact,