Posted on 10/17/2009 2:09:23 AM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
A military delegation from Iraq will visit Moscow in the near future to discuss the purchase of Russian weaponry, an Iraqi parliament member has said.
"A large delegation from the Iraqi Defense Ministry will travel soon to Moscow for talks on arms purchases [from Russia]," Abbas al-Bayati said in an interview with the Al Iraqiya television.
According to the Iraqi MP, Baghdad is seeking to sign arms contracts with Russia, Germany, France, Serbia and the United States by the end of 2011 "to complete the creation of Iraqi Armed Forces and security forces."
Al-Bayati said the Iraqi leadership is interested in the diversification of arms suppliers, but takes into consideration the fact that "the military experience of the Iraqi army is based primarily on the Russian weaponry."
The Soviet Union had been the main supplier of military equipment to Iraq before an international embargo against the country was imposed in 1990 following the Iraqi attack on Kuwait.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003, the Iraqi Armed Forces had to be recreated almost from scratch, and they are still not sufficiently equipped with modern weaponry, especially aircraft.
Russia and Iraq started the discussion of reviving military-technical ties during the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to Moscow in April 2009.
(Excerpt) Read more at en.rian.ru ...
Sounds to me like the descision makers have zero clue on logistics issues.
Scratch the above.
I had an image of the Iraqis buying mixed batches of small arms from various nations.
Brain fart.
It makes sense at the grunt level. Most of their troops were trained with Russian equipment.
Their air force was half-Russian, half-French, with a ragbag of French, Russian, and US surface-to-air missiles (they had some I-Hawks integrated with their systems, iirc, and I think they had the French Crotale, too).
Their MBT's were all Russian. Their ASM's and SSM's were French (Exocet), Chinese, and Russian.
It makes sense to avoid American arms purchases since those always require justifying everything you do to some moronic congressmen looking to get their faces on TV.
Here we are defending Israeli soldiers from the World Court [I hope and pray we do!], and now we lose out on a weapons’ contract. Way to go, Hillary/O.
Iraq will soon use those very weapons against Israel. Watch.
Russian arms are cheaper, and the Russians (like the French) usually won’t impose embargoes on weapons for political reasons.
That said, I still think the Iraqis owe us some kind of repayment.
Russian stuff is cheaper and as far as small arms go, more reliable in a desert environment.
We should sell NEW American hardware to Mexico, Peru, Columbia with a trade in for all their Russian hardware which we could overhaul and give to the Afghanis a lot cheaper than building Brand New equipment as with the AIRINC / CNTPO deal. That would effectively kick Russia out of all Latin America but Venezuela and Cuba.
My AK was jamming right out of the box. I told the range master “I thought these Kalashnikov’s don’t jam”! He said; “I never saw one that didnt jam”.
While 0bama and Hillary bafoons bow and standdown to them.
Russian weapons are not only cheaper, they are easier to maintain. Most 3rd world military do not have the technical base to maintain Western weapons systems effectively.
Our pay back in Iraq is our military presence in that country.
Iraq is the strategic high ground of the Middle East. A geographic barrier that severs ground communication between Iran and Syria apart as well as providing another front of attack into either state or into Saudi Arabia if needed.
*We should sell NEW American hardware to Mexico, Peru, Columbia with a trade in for all their Russian hardware which we could overhaul and give to the Afghanis a lot cheaper *
?????
The countries you name use far more US and Israeli gear than Russian. Aside from a couple Peruvian units using AKMs, their small arms are almost entirely US, Israeli, EU.
For vehicles, they have scattered numbers of some BRDMs, some obsolete T-55s, etc., but pales in comparison to non-Russian gear. They do use a good scattering of Russian transport helos (MI-17 and 26), but that’s about it.
Oh, and as far as small arms, transitioning Afghans from the AK to the M16 is well underway and basically a done-deal unless we stop tomorrow.
If you’re refering to Bible prophesy I don’t think that’s clear. Persia or Babylon could just mean Iran.
CNTPO (US Navy) is buying 22 brand new Mi-17 helicopters from Russia's Kazan Helicopter Plant via OKC firm, "AIRINC" and gathering used Mi-24 (Hind), An-24, An-26, An32 from various sources for the Afghans.
Rather than spend $330,000,000.00 USD$ on new Russian aircraft, we should gather the 35x Mi-17 and 12 x Mi-24 helicopters from Peru, overhaul them, and give them to the Afghans. Trade for new and overhauled (but flyable and mission - ready) American helicopters. Do the same thing with the other bannana republics and Russia would be virtually locked out of the Latin American market as there would be no reason to build much - needed maintenance capabilities there to sustain the existing fleet.
The Bush / Obama era policy enriches the Russians at the expense of American treasure and jobs.
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