Posted on 12/27/2010 7:02:18 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Iraqi army builds up first tank division
Published: Dec. 21, 2010
BAGHDAD, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The new Iraqi army has started building up its armored forces with the first batch of 140 U.S.-built M1A1 Abrams main battle tank, the same type that crushed Saddam Hussein's military in March 2003.
The 9th Armored Division, based near Baghdad, will be the spearhead of an army that will likely have a strength of more than 300,000 troops in up to 20 divisions, six of them armored.
That's a far cry from the 1 million-man army, with 5,500 mainly Soviet- built T-72 and T-62 MBTs, that Saddam once fielded when Iraq was a major Middle East power. But the new army isn't designed to conduct the ill-fated military adventures undertaken by the power-hungry Saddam, such as the 1980 invasion of Iran and the 1990 conquest of Kuwait.
Its mission is first to crush insurgent forces and restore order and stability in the oil-rich country then to protect its borders against outside aggression.
The army received the first 11 Abrams in August. That was part of a $6 billion arms package approved by the United States in December 2008 to provide 140 M1A1s and 400 Stryker combat vehicles. Both are built by General Dynamics Land Systems.
"This step is part of preparations by Iraqi forces to take over security responsibilities and build a strong army as the U.S. withdraws," said Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, the Defense Ministry spokesman.
"This delivery will help to form the military's first armored division since 2003."
The Iraqis are training crews at the Besmaya military base near Baghdad on 22 M1A1s leased from the U.S. Army, which is equipped with the more advanced M1A2.
Delivery of the rest of the 140 M1A1s is to be completed by the end of 2011, when the U.S. military is slated to wrap up its withdrawal from Iraq.
Along with the MBTs, the United States is supplying 100 support vehicles, including 35 tank transporters.
Iraq's Abrams are newly built and are equipped with infrared thermal imagers, a special air filer for the engine to deal with the sand and dust of Iraq, systems that are components of the U.S. Army's Situational Awareness standard.
But they don't have the depleted uranium armor or the Blue Force Tracker, a satellite tracking system that displays the location of all U.S. vehicles and aircraft in the Abrams' operational vicinity.
Although Iraq's military and security forces are being trained by the Americans, U.S. officials disclosed in January 2009 that the Iraqis, on American advice, planned to purchase up to 2,000 retrofitted T-72s, redesignated the T-91 and built to be interoperable with U.S. forces.
These were to be upgraded, at an estimated cost of $3 million per tank, to near-M1A1 standard with modern guns and armor as well as new fire-control systems.
That made sense since Iraqi forces were familiar with the systems as Iraqi military doctrine was built around Soviet-era weapons supplied to Saddam's regime by Moscow.
Most of the equipment used by Saddam's army was either destroyed by U.S. and British forces in the 2003 fighting or was looted in the chaos that ensued Saddam's defeat.
In 2005, Hungary, a former Soviet satellite state, agreed to donate 77 T-72s to the Iraqis. Others were expected to come from Eastern European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Slovakia.
However, that idea seems to have fallen from favor with the Pentagon and whether it will be pursued to one extent or another remains to be seen.
The Abrams is more than a match for the largely antiquated armor fielded by Iran, Iraq's eastern neighbor and traditional enemy that has long had its eyes on conquest.
But supplying Iraq with M1A1s opens the possibility of its Abrams having to go up against other U.S.-built tanks in the armies of Saudi Arabia, which has more advanced M1A2s, and Turkey, which has older M-60A1s.
Right now, the possibility of that happening seems remote. But if, for instance, the bloodletting between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni minority flares once U.S. forces have quit Iraq, Sunni-dominated states like Turkey and Saudi Arabia could intervene to support their endangered co-religionists.
This article is so far out ATT as to be fantacy.
The work of someone who is clueless...
The Iraqis are going with a mix of used Mirage 2000s and new F16 Block 52s.
http://home.comcast.net/~djyae/site/?/blog/view/81/
If you are looking for facts vice fiction, try my blog.
I don’t write often but, I base my writings on the facts as they exist at the time.
Indeed!
“Divide and Conquer” the Muslims should be the USA foreign policy - It is INSANE for the USA to attempt “nation building” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We should be ENCOURAGING wars between Muslim nations.
We didn’t leave the nazis in charge in Germany. In Iraq the muslims remain in charge with sharia enshrined in their constitution. And Christians are being cleansed as we speak.
Mission accomplished?
Thanks for the information.
It would be a shame if oine day we had to fight these tanks, and it is well within the realm of possibility.
We have given weapons to others before only to have them used against us.
5 countries [US/RS/CH/UK/FR] make 70 percent of the words military weapons. 85 percent of the aircraft. Exports are how they support the industry for their military force.
The exports are ussually less capable than used domestically. E.G. the lack of DU armor on export M1A1s is the equivalent of 2 inches less of steel armor.
And certain systems are not exported. Everything we are SELLING to Iraq is 1970/1980s tech. What we are donating is 1960s/1970s equipment that we are eliminating from our inventory.
I beleive most can make their own ammo.
Who will maintain them?
Not the Iraqi’s.
The reason they fly russian helicopters is that they cannot handle the maintenance load of the Black Hawks, 47’s and 53’s.
Someone is inline for a massive advisor/tech support contract.
Our tax dollars at work.
Once the US leaves these weapons will be used to kill Christians, Sunnis and Kurds, not Iranians.
Why the USA politicians wasted $3 to $4 trillion dollars of taxpayer money and suffered 4,500 killed and 33,000 wounded just to build another disfunctional militant muslim terrorist state is a question for the ages.
They will not be our friends.
No matter how much we do for them and how much we spend building their army they will always remember we invaded their country and killed their fathers, sons and husbands.
Yeah, I don’t understand why we killed all those Germans and Japanese in order to build a new Army for each of them.
Rolls eyes.
Soon to be turned loose on Iraqi Christians....
Osama is gonna love having all those nice tanks!
When moontarder(Muqtada al-Sadr) takes over he will really like those things.
UN Arab Development Report( it’s on line, pdf, somewhere)
Anyway, there are about 600 million ‘Arabs’, in about 20 countries, from the Alantic to Iraq. 1-2 dollars per day per person. Half or more illiterate. Half of the countries reporting no social statistics. Total GDP for all, less then Finland, or Norway. Not one world class manufactured product or service or university.
Supposedly there is no word for ‘work’ in Arabic. Arab culture looks down on workmen, skilled trades, technicians. I knew a American tec that installed million dollar equipment in plants in the ME. The owners would never come to the floor to inspect thier capital purchase, unlike a US or EU buisness owner who would crowd around the new, expensive, productive tool.
I stand corrected.
The Iraqi logistics system is still in it's infancy. They cannot maintain their HMMWV's without US assistance. These tanks will end up in Iranian hands, either by gift, or as war trophies, and with Maliki's ties to Tehran, my money is on the gifts.
The Iraqis fly US, French, and Russian helos.
And the only reason they have Russian Mi-17s is because the US pushed them to buy them.
The reason MNSTC-I pushed the Iraqis to buy Mi-17s is because Iraq has 900 trained Mi-17 pilots/flight engineers.
[My source for that detail is Major Tony Sidoti - former MNSTC-I CAFTT. He also said they had to talk them out of buying Blackhawks. IMoD has an adversion to “Russian Junk”.]
Iraqi MoI is currently looking at buying Blackhawks.
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