This was the US delivery of short-range aircraft from the USA to the USSR via Abadan, Iran (March 1942 onward).

The programme was begun before the USA’s December 1941 entry into the war, and a base was established on Abadan island in March 1942. Tankers, returning empty from delivering oil to the USA, carried disassembled Bell P-39 Airacobra fighters, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters and Douglas A-20 attack bombers to Abadan, where they were assembled and flown to the southern USSR. The 82^nd Air Depot Group was part of ‘Cedar’, and a similar secret operation was established in Egypt as ‘Project 19’.