Military of Iraq

The Military of Iraq consits of the Iraqi Army fields infantry, mechanized, and armored divisions. The historical Iraqi Republican Guard had in field armored divisions, mechanized divisions, and a motorized infantry division.

History

The Iran-Iraq War ended with Iraq supporting the largest military of the Middle East, with more than 70 army divisions and over 700 aircraft within its air force. Losses during the invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent ejection of Iraqi forces from Kuwait by a United Nations coalition resulted in the reduction of Iraq's ground forces to 23 divisions and the air force to less than 300 aircraft. Military and economic sanctions prevent Iraq from rebuilding its military power, however, Iraq still maintains a standing military of about 375,000 troops.

In the 1990s, Iraq had an arsenal of chemical and biological weapons. During weapons inspections in 2003, United Nations weapons inspectors searched Iraqi sites. Together with the Iraqi government, the UN participated in "substantial measures of disarmament," with several weapons of mass destruction being accounted for and destroyed. In late 2003, an American-led coalition invaded and occupied Iraq. No large weapons cache of mass destruction have been found.

Order of Battle (Pre-2003)

Before January 10, 2003, the Iraqi Army fields at least 11 infantry, 3 mechanized, and 3 armored divisions. In addition, the Iraqi Republican Guard fields 3 armored divisions, 2 mechanized divisions, and 1 motorized infantry division, while the Special Republican Guard fields 6 brigades, including two tank brigades and an anti-aircraft brigade..

• Republican Guard (RG)-- 80-100,000 troops located along the Tigris, to the north and south of Baghdad
• Special Republican Guard (SRG) -- 15-20,000 troops located along the Tigris, just south of Baghdad
• Regular Army -- 375,000 troops located primarily in eastern Iraq
• Iraqi Special Forces -- Six brigades
• Fedayeen Saddam and other paramilitary forces

Iraqi Equipment

Number of equipment as of 2003 is presented inside parenthesis.

Tanks (Total: 2,200)

The Iraqi tank forces consist mainly of old Soviet gear. The Type-69/59 are Chinese copies of the Soviet T-55/54 tanks. (see List of Soviet tanks)

• T-72 (700)
• T-62 (500)
• T-55/54 (500)
• Type-69 (350)
• Scud-B (27?)
• Al Abbas
• Al Hussein

Fighters

The J-7 is a Chinese copy of the MiG-21.

• Dassault Mirage F1
• Su-20/Su-22
• Sukhoi Su-25
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29
• J-7

Surface-to-Air Missiles

• Crotale
• Roland
• SA-2
• SA-3
• SA-7
• SA-6
• SA-9

Was the Regular Army Loyal?

Former General Bernard Trainor and Colonel Jack Jacobs, working now for MSNBC, argue that the central location of the Republican Guard Troops indicates that the Army, Navy, Air Force, Air Defense Force, Border Guard Force (Historical - Republican Guard, Fedayeen Saddam)

Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age

Military manpower - availability:
males age 15-49: 5,674,990 (2000 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 3,176,826 (2000 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
males: 266,736 (2000 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: NA%

References and Links

• Iraq
• US plan to invade Iraq
• Iraqi production and use of weapons of mass destruction