Soviet-armed Iraq switches to US weapons
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK - As the United States withdraws the last of its 50,000 troops after a
nearly nine-year military occupation of Iraq, visiting Iraqi President Nuri
al-Maliki had one final request: billions of dollars worth of US weapons for
his rag-tag armed forces.
A longstanding Soviet and later Russian ally, Iraq under former president
Saddam Hussein never had an ongoing military relationship with the United
States.
Now, Iraq is gradually abandoning its huge arsenal of primarily Russian and
French equipment in favor of US arms.
At a White House meeting on Monday, Maliki was assured a second batch of 18
sophisticated F-16 fighter planes to help
rebuild the country's dilapidated air force, whose helicopters and missiles the
US destroyed during its long-drawn-out war beginning March 2003.
The Iraqis have already indicated that their military needs will include a
total of 96 F-16 fighter jets in four separate orders.
The Iraqi president told the administration of US President Barack Obama that
his country would depend on the US not only for new weapons systems but also
for training under the US International Military Education and Training (IMET)
Program.
Multiple and varied motives
Dan Darling, Middle East defense analyst at the Connecticut-based Forecast
International, an aerospace and defense market research company, told Inter
Press Service (IPS) the Iraqi military is heavily vested in US equipment.
Early during the rebuilding stage of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), he said,
the US outfitted Iraqi troops with second-hand small arms and donated equipment
from former Warsaw Pact nations, as the average Iraqi soldier in Hussein's
military was familiar with these arms.
But from 2005 onwards, he pointed out, the goal became equipping the Iraqi
military with more and more US armaments via the Pentagon's
government-to-government Foreign Military Sales (FMS) channel.
A proposed $10.9 billion arms package finalized in August 2008 included six
C-130J Hercules transport aircraft, 24 Bell helicopters armed with Hellfire
missiles and launchers, 140 Abrams battle tanks, 160 Guardian M1117 armored
security vehicles, 392 light armored vehicles and 26 M72 light anti-tank
weapons.
In October 2010, the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced a second military
package valued at $4.2 billion, which included 18 F-16 fighter planes and AIM-9
Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, along with laser-guided bombs and
reconnaissance equipment.
The DoD said the arms package would make Iraq "a more valuable partner in an
important area of the world, as well as supporting Iraq's legitimate needs".
The United States also has a hidden agenda in beefing up the Iraqi armed forces
against neighboring Iran, which already has strong political influence on
al-Maliki's government.
Revamping Iraq's military
Under Saddam, the air force, the army and the navy were equipped primarily with
Russian and French weapons systems, including Aerospatiale and Mi-17
helicopters, and T-55 and T-72 battle tanks.
The total strength of the ISF has declined from about 900,000 troops under the
Saddam Hussein regime to the current 250,000. Armed with rising oil revenues,
the Iraqi government is now in the process of rebuilding all three services:
the army, the air force and the navy.
According to the latest figures from the Congressional Research Service, Iraq's
total arms purchases from 2002 to 2005 amounted to about $8.1 billion.
The United States was the primary supplier accounting for about $5.2 billion in
arms.
Darling told IPS that much of these sales early on came from US foreign
military financing (FMF) credits, largely through the Pentagon's Iraqi Security
Forces Fund (ISFF).
These funds were used to purchase equipment, build infrastructure, conduct
training and sustain the ISF, the Iraqi border guards, police forces and the
intelligence services.
Between 2005 and 2011, the Pentagon allocated around $20.6 billion towards the
ISFF, he said.
As the Iraqi state institutions began to take form and the central government
under Maliki grew in confidence (and state coffers began receiving healthy
intakes of energy revenues) more and more Iraqi orders were placed via FMS,
with some $16 billion worth of requests for various equipment, facilities
construction and services placed in 2008 alone.
Darling said reports in the Iraqi media have stated that further such orders
from the US could reach up to $26 billion, with $13 billion in FMS requests
projected by 2013.
He said it is important to remember that the ISF has planned its rebuilding in
three phases: 2006-2010, 2011-2015, and 2016-2020.
The first such stage was meant for filling out the ranks with manpower, the
second for ordering equipment and the third for absorbing the equipment and
discerning where any capabilities gaps remain.
"Going forward, we project Iraq to be one of the largest military markets in
the Middle East, behind Saudi Arabia and alongside Israel, Iran and the UAE
[United Arab Emirates]," Darling predicted.
Iraqi defense ambitions remain broad and while much of the navy reconstruction
is nearing completion, much work remains to be done in the Iraqi Air Force and
land forces, he added.
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