Iraqi Army Begins M1A1 Tank Training

In this Oct. 31, 2008 file photo, Iraqi Soldiers are introduced to the tanks their Army will use in the future. Photo by Spc. Chase Kincaid, Joint Combat Camera Center Iraq.

TAJI — The Iraqi Army Armor School here hosted an M1A1 tank orientation for the first group of 28 Iraqi Army M1A1 tank crewmen, Dec. 21.

The crewmen, selected from the cadre of current Iraqi Army Armor School instructors and Iraqi Army 9th Mechanized Infantry Division, will continue their orientation through Jan. 2.

Final selectees will then participate in a three month train-the-trainer course with U.S. Army instructors at the CombatTraining Center.

Once their training is complete, the graduates will serve as instructors for the remaining Iraqi Army crews, building basic M1A1 skills prior to the arrival of their own M1A1 tanks.

This approach will allow the Iraqi Army to significantly accelerate the fielding of its new armor regiments. The Government of Iraq purchased 140 advanced M1A1 Abrams Integrated Management Situational Awareness tanks scheduled to arrive in the fall of 2010.

“The M1A1 tank is the future of Iraq; the Soviet equipment is our past….the M1A1s will lead us into the future,” said Iraqi Army Col. Ghazi, Iraqi Army Armor School Commandant.

A. The photo is of a BMP1 from 2-34/9 IA Armored Cavalry Battalion, taken 29 Oct 2008. They had their T72s and BMP1s out at Besmaya for training and were also familiarizing with US M1A1s. They grabbed the wrong photo for the 70+ odd posted at DVIDS.

B. That 140 tanks ordered is the first order. The second order’s notice to congress was delivered 9 Dec 2008, which means that the order will not be official until early next year.

C. I wrote about the IA already training on US M1A1s pending receipt several weeks ago, two different articles mentioned that detail at the Long War Journal. Even used a photo from the same set as that BMP1 for one of the articles. Except the one I used was of an M1 side by side with a T72.

The only part of this that is news is when the first 140 M1s are to be delivered...

We are not “giving” them anything.
They are buying it with their own money.

They don’t want old 1960s built, used junk.
(Their attitude, I would have gone with the M60-120S, in their shoes. Cost half as much per tank.)

The only reason they have the T72s and T55s is because, they were either given them or salvaged them from the boneyards. so as to have something until they could buy replacements.

Two years ago, the public statements of their second ranking general indicated they were looking at M60s. That appears to have been cancelled...

“As soon as we leave, they’ll turn them against their own people and another dictator will be in charge of Iraq to replace Hussein.”

You might see Mookie and his Iranian backed buddies try to pull that kind of crap but I don’t think the typical Iraqi wants to go back to that life. These people have been kicked around for a long time and they are tired of it.

The Kurds won’t let it happen again.

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