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Iraqi Armed Forces
Timeline: A Red Century
Headquarters: Baghdad
Commander-in-Chief: Saddam Hussein
Commander: President of Iraq
Branches: Iraqi Army
Iraqi Air Force
Iraqi Navy
Republican Guard
Iraqi Popular Army
Active personnel: 1,250,000 (Jan-1993)/
4,550,000 (Aug-1993)
Reserve personnel: 3,300,000/
0 (Aug-1993)
Deployed: 2,880,000 (Aug 4-1993)
Annual budget: 71,7 billion (Aug 4-1993)
In % of GDP: 14,0%
Founded in: 1917
Reorganized in : January 6 of 1959
Disbanded: May 12 of 1994
Ages qualified for service: 18
Available for service: 8,016,800, age 15-49
Fit for service: 7,997,960, age 15-49
Reaching age / yr: 340,700
Conscription law: Mandatory for all males
Supplying countries: Soviet Union, China, France, Brazil, Poland, East Germany, Czechslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Canada, South Africa
Annual arms imports: 6,667 millions USD

This article refers to the former Iraqi Armed Forces under the Ba'ath Regime of Saddam Hussein. For the actual Iraqi Army please see Iraqi Self-Defence Forces.

The military of Iraq in the early 90's fielded the sixth largest army, held the fourth largest air force and had the fourth largest military expenditure in the world falling behind only the United States, the Soviet Union and China.

Iraq was considered by far the strongest regional power of the Middle East and potentially a future great power in the world. Specialists consider the fact that if the Great Middle East War didn't happened the Iraqi army would have become the 4th largest by 1999.

The equipment of the Iraqi army ranged from old models to state of the art equipment. However, most of the older tanks, APCs, IFVs and other old but still in use military equipment underwent a major modernization program during the 80's making the Iraqi army a largely modern force by the time of the war.

The Republican Guard was an elite force within the Iraqi military. It was an all volunteer military force which received the best training, weapons and equipment the country possessed. Examples of this were the fact many of best equipment held by Iraq  such as the Asad Fahd and Asad Babil II tanks and the SA-10d/e (S-300PM) was restricted only to the RG. The RG also held total control over Iraq's ballistic missile capabilities.

The Iraqi Popular Army was a paramiliary army composed of civilian volunteers to help quell internal opposition and counter-balance any coup attempts by the regular Iraqi Army. They were poorly trained and equipped in the sense they weren't intended to serve as an attacking force but rather as internal security or rear line forces. Nevertheless, their presence avoided an early downfall of Saddam Hussein at the hands of Shi'a and Kurdish rebellious factions that surfaced under the crescent strain put on the Iraqi military for the war.

The Iraqi Air force was primarily composed of modernised old aircraft imported from Warsaw Pact countries, China and France during the early 80's yet it possessed a considerable amount of modern fighters acquired in the late 80's and early 90's. The ability of the Iraqi pilots was the best among all Arab air forces in the world being able to fight on par with the IAF and the USAF which possessed arguably the world's best trained pilots at the time, this was thanks to extensive expenditure on pilot training following difficulties faced in the short Iran-Iraq war where Iranian pilots with greater ability dealt considerable casualties to the IQAF.

The Iraqi Navy was by far the least prominent branch of the Iraqi military, while it was armed with some of the most modern missile boats of the time and a small force of submarines, the fact Iraq didn't share water borders with Israel and the massive difference in power between the Iraqi Navy and the coalition naval forces reduced the former's role to a small yet notable role in Operation Jihad.

Overall, Iraq displayed a formidable military force that despite its impressive capabilities was no match for the combined forces from the militaries of 32 countries including the United States, United Kingdom and France.

Wars[]

Weapons[]

Personal:


Support Weapons:

Vehicles[]

Aircraft[]

Name Type Country of origin Quantity Picture
MiG-21bis Fighter Soviet Union / China 400
MiG-21bis
MiG-23MLD Fighter Soviet Union 300
MiG-23MLD
MiG-25PD Interceptor Soviet Union 20
MiG-25PD
Mirage F1 EQ-4 Multirole fighter France 200
Mirage F1E
Mirage 2000E Multirole fighter France 150
Mirage 2000E
MiG-29B-12 Air superiority fighter Soviet Union 100
MiG-29 ira
Su-24MK Attack aircraft Soviet Union 40
SU-24MK
Su-25K Attack aircraft Soviet Union 137
Su-25K
Tu-22K Medium bomber Soviet Union 16
Tu-22K (2)
Ilyushin Il-76 Cargo aircraft Soviet Union 48
Ilyushin Il-76
Mi-8 Transport helicopter Soviet Union 383
Mi-8
SA 330H Utility helicopter France 74
SA 330H Puma
SA 342L Light attack helicopter France 220
SA 342L Gazelle
Mi-25 Attack helicopter Soviet Union 150
Mi-25


Land Vehicles[]

Name Type Branches Country of origin Quantity Picture
UAZ-469 Light Utility Vehicle All Soviet Union 362,000
UAZ-469
Ural-375D Truck All Soviet Union 18,000
Ural-375D
Ural-4320 Truck Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 29,000
Ural-4320
IFA W50 Truck All East Germany 11,500
IFA W50
BRDM-2 Amphibious Armoured scout car Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 1,500
BRDM-2 (2)
BTR-50PK Amphibious Armoured personnel carrier Army Soviet Union 250
Iraqi BTR-50
BTR-60PB Amphibious Armoured personnel carrier Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 600
BTR-60
MT-LB Armoured personnel carrier Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 1,450
MT-LB
Type 63 Armoured personnel carrier Army, Republican Guard China 900
Type 63
EE-11 Armoured personnel carrier Army, Republican Guard Brazil 800
EE-11
OT-62 Amphibious Armoured personnel carrier Army Czechoslovakia / Poland 300
OT-62
OT-64 Amphibious Armoured personnel carrier Army, Republican Guard Czechoslovakia / Poland 400
OT-64
AML-90 Light armoured car Army France 500
AML-90
EE-9 Armoured car Army, Republican Guard Brazil 1,300
EE-9
EE-18 Tank destroyer Republican Guard Brazil 250
EE-18
BMP-1 Infantry fighting vehicle Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 2,300
BMP-1
BMP-2 Infantry fighting vehicle Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 1,800
BMP-2 side
T-55 & variants Main battle tank Army Soviet Union / China / Poland / East Germany / Czechoslovakia / Romania / Hungary / Locally produced 2,800
T-55 Enigma (2)

T-55 Enigma

T-62 & variants Main battle tank Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union / China / Poland / East Germany / Czechoslovakia / Romania / Hungary 3,500
T62M-1

T-62M-1

T-72 & variants Main battle tank Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 1,750
T-72M1M (2)

T-72M1M Asad Babil II

EE-T2 Main battle tank Republican Guard Brazil 950
EE-T1

EE-T1 Fahd Babil

2S1 Self-propelled artillery Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 600
2S1
2S3 Self-propelled artillery Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 450
2S3
M1954 Field gun Army Soviet Union/ China 1,000
M1954
2A18 Howitzer Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 800
2A18
GHN-45 Howitzer Army, Republican Guard Canada 450
GHN-45
G-5 Howitzer Republican Guard South Africa 200
G-5 Rear
BM-21 Multiple rocket launcher Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union / Locally produced 650
BM-21
Astros II Multiple rocket launcher Republican Guard Brazil 180
Astros II front
FROG-7 Artillery rocket Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union/ Locally produced 100
FROG-7
Scud-B & variants   Tactical ballistic missile Republican Guard Soviet Union/ Locally produced 70
SS-1C
SS-21 Tactical ballistic missile Republican Guard Soviet Union 36
SS-21
ZSU-23-4 Self-propelled anti-aircraft gun Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 800
ZSU-23-4
SA-11 Surface-to-air missile Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 336
SA-11
SA-13 Surface-to-air missile Army, Republican Guard Soviet Union 114 
SA-13
SA-10d/e Surface-to-air missile Republican Guard Soviet Union 24 
SA-10


See Also[]

Links[]

Great Middle East War (A Red Century);

A Red Century;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIPRI_Arms_Transfers_Database,_Iraq_1973%E2%80%931990

http://www.defesabr.com/Eb/eb_osorio.htm (Portuguese)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equipment_of_the_Iraqi_Army

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