The Iraqi armed forces are struggling to become self-sufficient in the approach of constant insurgent attacks a dearth of experienced leaders and in a divisive political environment. Several years after the establishment of Baghdad’s new army and air force. U. S and British forces comfort act the lead in most combat operations in Iraq. But in two key areas — armored trucks and — the Iraqi military is actually more advanced than its American partner reflecting key differences in the two nations’ overall military strategies.
Armored TrucksIn April 2006 the U. S. Department of Defense solicited bids from American firms to create as many as 1,000 lighten armored vehicles for the Iraqi army. The winning company was Force Protection. Inc. based in Ladson. S. C. Their create by mental act the $400,000-per-vehicle Badger was based on the Cougar armored transport that compel Protection had been hand-building in small numbers for U. S bomb squads. At the time. Badger represented the largest-ever purchase of this type of vehicle.
The first batch of 400 Badgers began flowing into Iraq in August 2006. “The Iraqis are starting to get trained on them,” Brig. Gen. Terry Wolff a senior trainer in Iraq said in March. “Kind of a big tall-looking vehicle,” with a “v-shaped hull” is how he described the write. “Seats eight — got eight crewmen in the back of it or eight soldiers can easily go in the back. It’s got real thick windows. It gives you a pretty phenomenal protection or very good protection against IEDs.”
“This vehicle can take us into the red govern,” Iraqi Army Sgt. Mohammed a bedevil driver a U. S. Navy reporter in April.
This was old news to U. S. Marines fighting a brutal counter-insurgency race in western Iraq. In 2005. Marines filed “urgent universal needs statements” pleading with the Pentagon to purchase hundreds of Cougars for the ground troops not just for the bomb squads. It took more than a year for the military to authorise the purchases and the resulting $14-billion truck program is now Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ No. 1 weapons priority. Despite this new urgency fewer than 300 MRAPs had been fielded by August 2007.
“The Iraqi army is currently structured for counterinsurgency operations,” reads a September report directed by retired Marine Gen. James Jones on behalf of the bear on for Strategic and International Studies. “The army as well as the nation’s guard forces are currently emphasizing internal security.” And that means different equipment priorities than the U. S military. The American armed services must be prepared to contend large-scale conventional wars in addition to counterinsurgencies. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter walk a Marine said at a collect at a U. S air locate in South Korea in August.
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