Military Analysis of Iraq

 The Iraqi military forces are supplied with recently modern weaponry from the Soviet Union as well as their brother arabs. Most impressive is their mass of Russian T-54, T-55, T-62, and and T-72 tanks. Other threats are the SCUD-B Missiles that Iraq possess, along with chemical weapons (which Iraq has not hesitated to use in the past), and a small possibility of a few nuclear weapons .

See also Gulf War.

The Iraqi Air Force is not considered to be much of a military threat while their Army did gain some much needed experience from the Iran-Iraq war. Note that after the invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent war between Iraq and the U.S. led Coalition, Iraq's fighting forces were reduced dramatically, and it is thought to be thoroughly demoralized.

NOTE: After the conclusion of Operation Desert Storm, the number of Iraqi tanks appears been halved.  This as a result of both the air war and the destruction in the less than two weeks of ground fighting. It appears that the Soviet technique used by the Iraqis to dig their tanks in only showing the turret, was a primary cause of the loss of a number of tanks. U.S. volitle fuel-air weapons tended to work quite well at blowing the tops of the tanks off, and when the U.S. tanks streamed around the front lines from the West, the buried tanks were not able to dig out and move quickly, thus defeating their purpose as a highly mobile high caliber gun.

Note also that the U.S. strategy to attack from the West ensured that when the Iraqis made to withdraw East and North back into Iraq, they had to pass through well positioned and flexible Coalition lines. Since U.S. policy at the time would not allow combat units to pass, this in effect prohibited any of the Iraqi fighting equipment to return to Iraq. This effectively destroyed 50% of the Iraqi ground forces, ending Iraq's domination of the region in terms of military strength.

With all the Iraqi chemical and biological facilities in ruin Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were those limited to those on hand in protected regions of Iraq, and any remaining SCUD missiles in the Iraqi inventory.

Also, during the war, many Iraqi aircraft were, rather than be destroyed on the ground, flown out of Iraq to Iran. After the war, the U.S. forbid the return of these aircraft, ultimately giving Iran a much needed boost in modern aircraft. The irony is that Iran has absolutely no spare parts or knowlege of how to maintain the aircraft and at last estimate, few are flyable and most likely beyond major repair.

Iraqi adventures were not over at the conclusion of the Gulf War however. In October 1994, Iraq began moving forces toward Kuwait once again, just as the U.S. began a gradual drawdown of forces in the region. By November, 1994, U.S. had a substantial number of troops once again in theater, and Iraq backed down.

All during the period following the Gulf War, the U.S. and coalition allies ran (and are still running) Operation Southern Watch enforcing a no fly zone in both Northern and Southern Iraq.

The U.S. Navy and coaltion naval forces have also been conducting Maritime Intercept Operations in order to enforce the U.N. embargo on trade with Iraq until such time as they comply completely with U.N. Security Council resolutions addressing weapons of mass destruction and other issues stemming from the Gulf War.

During the extremely short Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2002, few tanks were seen in the mad rush to Baghdad.  In fact, the vaunted Republican Guard vanished into the population and U.S.and Coaltion armor were busy plinking at vehiciles remenescient of the Somalian Technicals -- pickup trucks and small vans.  

The data on Iraqi forces below was verified in 1984. Obviously it is now obsolete following the Gulf war in 1991. We include it here, however, as a measure of the forces available at that time. For more details on force structures, see the U.S. DoD (CENTCOM) detailed overview on Iraq.  The new Iraqi military, when the country emerges from the reconstruction, will undoubtedly still field much of the old iron left over from "Gulf War I", augmented with new purchases from the world's arms dealers.  Also, it should be noted that the Coalition Authority disbanded the Iraqi military in total and then slowly added back some military officials after careful vetting. It is expected that the Iraqi Interim Government, which took over at the end of June, 2004, will, with the aid of the Coalition, build back its military personnel just as carefully.

Forces at Arms:

Military Service: Basic 21-24 months, extended for war

Total Armed Forces: 642,500 (mostly conscripts)

Army:

600,000 men

Force Structure: 4 Corps HQ, 6 armored divisions, 5 mechanized/motor infantry divisions, 5 infantry divisions, 4 mouintain divisions, 2 Republican Guard armored brigades, 3 Speical Forces brigades, 9 Reserve brigades, 15 Peoples Army/Volunteer infantry brigades.

Armor: 4,500 Soviet built T-54/55/62/72 tanks, 260 Czechoslovakian T-69 tanks, 60 romainian M-77 tanks, 10 PT-76 light tanks, about 3,200 Armored Fighting Vehicles whihc include BRDM, GUF-70, ERC-90, MOWAG Roland, 200 EE-9 Cascavel, EE-3 Jararaca armd cars, BMP MICV BTR-50/60/152, OT-62/64, 100 VCRTH with HOT anti-tank-guided weapon, Panhard M-3, EE-11 Urutu Armored Personnel carrier.

Artillery: Some 3,500 guns including 75mm pack, 1,000 85mm, 50 SU-100, 100mm SP, D-30 and ISU 122mm SP and M-46 130mm, 150 GHNB-45 155mm gun/how; M-56 pack, M-102mm 105mm, M-1938 SP 152mm M-114, M-109 SP 155mm how; FGT 108-R (SS-06) 108mm, BM-21 122mm, BM-14 140mm Multiple Rocket Launchers.

Anti-tank Weapons: SPG-9 73mm, B-10 82mm 107mm ;85mm, 100mm towed, 100 JPz SK-105 105mm SP guns; Saggar, SS-11, Milan, HOT ATGW.

Air Defense: 4,000 23mm, ZSU-23-4 SP; M-1939 and twin 37mm, 57mm including ZSU-57-2 SP 85mm 100mm and 130mm AA guns; SA-2/3/6/7/9 30 Roland SAM

Navy:

4,500 men

Training: 1 training frigate,

FAC: 10 Soviet Osa Fast Attack Craft (Missile) (FAC(G), each with 4 Styx missiles,

Patrol: 5 Soviet Large patrol craft, 10 Soviet coastal patrol craft,

FAC (T): 12 Soviet P-6 FAC(T) torpedo ships,

Utility: 5 minesweepers, 4 Soviet Polnocny LCTs, 1 support ship.

Air Force:

38,000 including 10,000 Air Defense personnel

580 combat aircraft, some 150 armed helicopters.

Bombers: 2 Bomber squadrons with 7 Tu-22, 1 with Tu-16;

Fighters: 11 Fighter-Ground-Attack squadrons;4 with some 100 MIG-23BM; 5 with some 95 Su-7 and 80 Su-20; 1 with Hunter FB-59/FR-10; 5 Super Etendard;

Interceptors: 5 interceptor squadrons 25 MIG-25, some 40 Mig-19, some 150 Mi-21, 45 Mirage F-1EQ, 4 F-1BQ, 1 recce squandron with 5 MIG- 25; 2 transport squadrons,

Helicopters: 11 helicopter squadrons with 35 Mi-4, 15 Mi-6, 150 Mi-8, 40 Mi-24, 40 Alouette III (some with AS-12 ASM), 11 Super Frelon (some with Exocet Am-39 ASM), 50 Gazelle (some with HOT), 13 Puma, 30 BO-105 (some with SS11), 7 Wessex Mk 52;

AAM: Magic I, R-530, R-440, AA-1/2/6/7/8

ASM: 360 HOT, As-11/12, Swatter ATGW, Exocet AM-39, AS-4 Kitchen, AS-5 Kelt