The Iraqi army leadership plans during the coming period to enhance its "fiery capabilities", through a series of contracts signed by the Iraqi government to supply cannons, marches, tanks and armored vehicles, to fill the shortage in some army divisions caused by the three-year war against ISIS. .
The violent battles against the organization, which ended with the liberation of Iraqi cities, led to the damage of a large percentage of the army’s machinery and equipment in various categories, in a way that it is difficult to return some of them to service, and the maintenance and rehabilitation operations did not include only the American “Humvee” mechanisms, and some armored vehicles and tanks. Russian and American made.
The Iraqi army consists of 14 military divisions, the commanders of the Air Force, the Navy, the Land Forces, the Air Defense, the Directorate of Military Intelligence, and other departments. The number of its members is 350,000 soldiers and officers. Its units are spread out in all Iraqi cities, except for the cities of the Kurdistan region.
New contracts
The Commander of the Land Forces, Lieutenant General Qassem Al-Muhammadi, revealed new contracts to import advanced drones and artillery, as well as other equipment.
He said in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency, "The leadership of the ground forces constitutes more than 72 percent of the number of Iraqi forces, as it holds the ground, and the rest of the units play the role of support to support our forces," noting that "there are efforts to develop the ground forces and keep pace with updates and their needs." To modern weapons of tanks, cannons and rifles.
Concerning the armament file, Al-Muhammadi indicated that "there are two trends in armaments, the first is American and includes many armored vehicles and a lot of existing equipment, and the second is of Russian origin and includes, for example, T-90 tanks that are comparable to their American Abrams counterparts. There are plans to increase them and increase them." divisions and brigades in order to increase the capabilities of the Iraqi army.
Iraq has 140 "Abrams" tanks and 90 "T-90" tanks that it acquired during the past three years, in addition to owning about 350 "T-72" and "T-55" tanks and some Chinese tanks that were rehabilitated from tank graves. The former Iraqi army.
Offensive marches
Al-Muhammadi added, "There are many contracts that include armed drones that fly in Iraqi airspace for 30 hours, and are capable of addressing targets and continuous monitoring towards various regions, and have proven their ability and effectiveness, in addition to the purchase of French artillery with high accuracy and weapons with night vision." That many of the military equipment, according to contracts signed by Iraq during the last period, part of it arrived at the port and part is manufactured by arms companies to support the Iraqi armed forces.
East-West rivalry
The commander of the Iraqi ground forces spoke of the existence of competition between the eastern and westerners in order to prove their ability, indicating that Iraq supports the diversification of weapons sources, and has a serious desire to develop Iraqi weapons and the possibility of manufacturing some locally.
At the end of 2019, Iraq opened three lines for the production of armored combat vehicles, mines and drones, in partnership with a private Iraqi company, under the global license of the Serbian "Armstrong" company and the American "TAC".
Work on these lines stopped during 2020, but they resumed work in the recent period, and three types of combat vehicles will be produced with an armor level of up to the seventh level.
The Iraqi military factories produced, prior to April 2003, a limited number of artillery batteries, mortars, mortar shells, ammunition, and some light equipment, as well as surveillance aircraft with short ranges, and Al-Samoud missiles, which have a range of about 150 kilometers. By invading Kuwait from manufacturing missiles with ranges exceeding 150 kilometers, and this prohibition still exists.
French arms
It seems that the process of arming the Iraqi army and modernizing its defense system was among the priorities of the Iraqi government, and the compass turned towards the western camp through negotiations conducted by the Iraqi Minister of Defense, Juma Inad, in the French capital, Paris, in December 2020, and a series of other meetings with officials. French, the last of which was in the middle of last month, with the international director of the French General Directorate of Armaments and Equipment, Major General Olivier Lecointe, during which they discussed ways to enhance cooperation and joint coordination between Iraq and France in the field of armaments, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
The spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Major General Yahya Rasoul, said that Iraq is determined to develop its military system, complete its construction and arm it with the latest weapons. He added in a televised interview, "There are clear steps to develop the Iraqi military system and complete its capabilities in all the joints of the Ministry of Defense, and we are working to develop the air defense system," noting that "there are visits made by the Minister of Defense to more than one country, and we will witness during the coming period the development of the air defense system and areas other".
Why France?
In turn, security and strategic expert Maan al-Jubouri said that armament is an important factor for any army to develop its capabilities, attributing the reason for Iraq's direction towards France in arming the army, to Paris's development in the military industry. He added, "The arming factor is important and essential for any army to develop its combat capabilities, especially the Iraqi army that operates in hot spots and fought fierce battles against ISIS and other organizations outside the law," noting that "it is difficult to manage the momentum of the armed forces and achieve victories without advanced armament." suited to the demands of battle.
Al-Jubouri indicated that "ISIS uses advanced tactics, so the Iraqi army must develop its weapons capabilities commensurate with the size of the liberation battles it is waging to eliminate ISIS, and carry out preemptive and qualitative strikes, and this requires weapons and modern technology."
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ISIS continues its attacks in areas located on the outskirts of the governorates of Diyala, Kirkuk and Salah al-Din, targeting the Iraqi security forces and their collaborators from the residents of these areas, through ambushes with explosive devices or lightning attacks on villages at night.
The range of mountains and hills of Hamrin, which extends between three Iraqi provinces in the north of the country, which are Diyala, Salah al-Din and Kirkuk, represents a basic and important base for launching terrorist attacks on large areas of these provinces, all the way to the outskirts of the capital, Baghdad.
During the year 2021, these attacks resulted in the killing and wounding of hundreds of security services, including the army, police, "Popular Mobilization Forces" and a number of civilians, but they seemed limited compared to the significant increase in the rate of "ISIS" operations in the beginning of 2020 and the end of 2019.
The marches are a necessity
Al-Jubouri stressed the need to develop the air defense system to protect the skies of Iraq, especially in light of the presence of booby-trapped drones, considering that air defense systems are an important part of ground support.
The General Command of the Armed Forces is facing the problem of Iraq's lack of an air defense system that confronts the drones, which are manufactured by some armed factions, and which attack Iraqi security headquarters that include American forces from time to time, and at the end of last October they targeted the house of the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi inside the Green Zone in central Baghdad.
Al-Jubouri indicated that arming Iraq with modern aircraft is very necessary to launch qualitative and rapid strikes, especially since some terrain can only be reached through aircraft, and "we need all kinds of weapons that the army needs, including cannons, tanks, and others."
He pointed out that Iraq currently has various armament contracts with Russia, France and the so-called socialist camp, considering that the diversification of arms sources gives flexibility to specialists to obtain what they need according to the current stage.
Reorganization of the army
For his part, the military expert Majid al-Qaisi stressed the need to reorganize the Iraqi armed forces according to the correct perspective, and work to arm them according to the military doctrine.
Al-Qaisi, a former major general in the Iraqi army, added, "Before thinking about weapons, work must be done to reorganize the armed forces according to the correct perspective in terms of numbers, formations, and size of the force, and then go to arming the Iraqi army according to a well-studied policy."
armament control
Al-Qaisi indicated that "the diversity of armament sources requires huge funds, infrastructure, and a base of squares, fields, etc., for training in weapons," pointing out that "the arming process must be clearly monitored so that it is not marred by corruption or random thinking, and what we need must be studied of the weapon."
He considered that the best weapon for the army is the weapon that is easy to use, train and sustain, and is not expensive, and is in line with the military doctrine of the Iraqi army, stressing that weapons that have high technology sometimes constitute a burden on countries.
structural reinforcement
He stressed the need to develop the structure of armaments by the political leadership and discuss it properly by specialists to meet the needs of the army, and he believed that relying on one country for armaments represents a political restriction.
He stressed the need for Iraq to have an air defense system to protect its airspace, stressing the need to develop solutions for future challenges and to supply appropriate weapons for these challenges.
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, Iraq has not been equipped with advanced and modern air defense systems capable of preventing any air violations, and it was limited to providing Baghdad with short-range air defense systems such as the Russian "Pantsir" and the American "Avenger". , in addition to anti-aircraft guns from the remnants of the former army, which have been rehabilitated.