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[]
- Great Middle East War
- Iran-Iraq War
Weapons[]
Personal:
- CZ-75 Handgun
- Makarov PM Handgun
- Skorpion vz. 61 Submachine Gun
- AKM Assault Rifle
- AK-47 Assault Rifle
- Type 56 Assault Rifle
- vz. 58 Assault Rifle
- PM md. 63/65 Assault Rifle
- Zastava M80 Assault Rifle
- Zastava M70 Assault Rifle
- Zastava M70B Rifle
- SKS Rifle
- AKS-74U Carbine
- RPK Light Machine Gun
- RPD Light Machine Gun
- Zastava M72 Light Machine Gun
- Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle
- Zastava M76 Sniper Rifle
- Al Kadesiah Sniper Rifle
- Tabuk Sniper Rifle
- RPG-7 Rocket Launcher
- Type 69 Rocket Launcher
- M80 Zolja Rocket Launcher
- RPG-29 Rocket Launcher
- APILAS Rocket Launcher
- GP-25 Grenade Launcher
- SA-14 Man-Portable SAM
- SA-16 Man-Portable SAM
- RGD-5 Hand Grenade
Support Weapons:
- PK General Purpose Machine Gun
- Type 67 General Purpose Machine Gun
- Zastava M84 General Purpose Machine Gun
- DShK & Type 54 Heavy Machine Gun
- NSV Heavy Machine Gun
- KPV Heavy Machine Gun
- M80 Zolja Rocket Launcher
- AGS-17 Automatic Grenade Launcher
- SPG-9 Recoilless Gun
- AT-3 Sagger Anti-Tank Missile
- AT-4 Spigot Anti-Tank Missile
- AT-14 Spriggan Anti-Tank Missile
- Milan ATGM Anti-Tank Missile
- ZPU-4 Anti-Aircraft Gun
- ZU-23-2 Anti-Aircraft Autocannon
- Bofors 40mm Anti-Aircraft Autocannon
- Type 67 82mm Medium Mortar
- Type 87 82mm Medium Mortar
- Type 86 120mm Heavy Mortar
- M-240 240mm Heavy Mortar
Vehicles[]
Aircraft[]
Name | Type | Country of origin | Quantity | Picture |
MiG-21bis | Fighter | Soviet Union / China | 400 | |
MiG-23MLD | Fighter | Soviet Union | 300 | |
MiG-25PD | Interceptor | Soviet Union | 20 | |
Mirage F1 EQ-4 | Multirole fighter | France | 200 | |
Mirage 2000E | Multirole fighter | France | 150 | |
MiG-29B-12 | Air superiority fighter | Soviet Union | 100 | |
Su-24MK | Attack aircraft | Soviet Union | 40 | |
Su-25K | Attack aircraft | Soviet Union | 137 | |
Tu-22K | Medium bomber | Soviet Union | 16 | |
Ilyushin Il-76 | Cargo aircraft | Soviet Union | 48 | |
Mi-8 | Transport helicopter | Soviet Union | 383 | |
SA 330H | Utility helicopter | France | 74 | |
SA 342L | Light attack helicopter | France | 220 | |
Mi-25 | Attack helicopter | Soviet Union | 150 |
Land Vehicles[]
Name | Type | Branches | Country of origin | Quantity | Picture |
UAZ-469 | Light Utility Vehicle | All | Soviet Union | 362,000 | |
Ural-375D | Truck | All | Soviet Union | 18,000 | |
Ural-4320 | Truck | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 29,000 | |
IFA W50 | Truck | All | East Germany | 11,500 | |
BRDM-2 | Amphibious Armoured scout car | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 1,500 | |
BTR-50PK | Amphibious Armoured personnel carrier | Army | Soviet Union | 250 | |
BTR-60PB | Amphibious Armoured personnel carrier | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 600 | |
MT-LB | Armoured personnel carrier | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 1,450 | |
Type 63 | Armoured personnel carrier | Army, Republican Guard | China | 900 | |
EE-11 | Armoured personnel carrier | Army, Republican Guard | Brazil | 800 | |
OT-62 | Amphibious Armoured personnel carrier | Army | Czechoslovakia / Poland | 300 | |
OT-64 | Amphibious Armoured personnel carrier | Army, Republican Guard | Czechoslovakia / Poland | 400 | |
AML-90 | Light armoured car | Army | France | 500 | |
EE-9 | Armoured car | Army, Republican Guard | Brazil | 1,300 | |
EE-18 | Tank destroyer | Republican Guard | Brazil | 250 | |
BMP-1 | Infantry fighting vehicle | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 2,300 | |
BMP-2 | Infantry fighting vehicle | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 1,800 | |
T-55 & variants | Main battle tank | Army | Soviet Union / China / Poland / East Germany / Czechoslovakia / Romania / Hungary / Locally produced | 2,800 | |
T-62 & variants | Main battle tank | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union / China / Poland / East Germany / Czechoslovakia / Romania / Hungary | 3,500 | |
T-72 & variants | Main battle tank | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 1,750 | |
EE-T2 | Main battle tank | Republican Guard | Brazil | 950 | |
2S1 | Self-propelled artillery | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 600 | |
2S3 | Self-propelled artillery | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 450 | |
M1954 | Field gun | Army | Soviet Union/ China | 1,000 | |
2A18 | Howitzer | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 800 | |
GHN-45 | Howitzer | Army, Republican Guard | Canada | 450 | |
G-5 | Howitzer | Republican Guard | South Africa | 200 | |
BM-21 | Multiple rocket launcher | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union / Locally produced | 650 | |
Astros II | Multiple rocket launcher | Republican Guard | Brazil | 180 | |
FROG-7 | Artillery rocket | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union/ Locally produced | 100 | |
Scud-B & variants | Tactical ballistic missile | Republican Guard | Soviet Union/ Locally produced | 70 | |
SS-21 | Tactical ballistic missile | Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 36 | |
ZSU-23-4 | Self-propelled anti-aircraft gun | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 800 | |
SA-11 | Surface-to-air missile | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 336 | |
SA-13 | Surface-to-air missile | Army, Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 114 | |
SA-10d/e | Surface-to-air missile | Republican Guard | Soviet Union | 24 |
See Also[]
Links[]
Great Middle East War (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)