By Ann Roosevelt
U.S. forces equipment currently in theater is expected to be moved out by Sept. 1, when the military-led operations transition to a civilian lead, the commanding general of U.S. forces there, said yesterday.
Army Gen. Ray Odierno said U.S. forces will continue to assist Iraq in building its forces and, beyond 2011, there will continue to be some technical support as Iraq buys U.S. weapons systems. In the future, Iraq plans to equip its forces with U.S. tanks and aircraft.
“They’ve already committed to M1A1 tanks,” Odierno told the Defense Writers Group. “They committed to C-130s; they have put a Letter of Request in for F-16s–we’re still working our way through that. They have bought some helicopters from the United States, so we’ll continue to provide technical advice to them.”
Additionally, post-2011, an Office of Security Cooperation will be set up inside the U.S. Embassy.
For example, Iraq has an approved Foreign Military Sale of 140 M1A1M Abrams tanks from the Army inventory, tank recovery vehicles, Humvees and other equipment for approximately $2 billion. The request was made in December 2008. Action on the sale is in abeyance until Iraq’s government is in place. General Dynamics [GD], Honeywell [HON] and General Motors [GM] Allison Transmission Division would be the contractors.
Meanwhile, equipment in Iraq is on the move as troops draw down to the expected 50,000 in accordance with the Obama administration’s strategy.
Over the past year, almost 40,000 wheeled vehicles have been sent out of Iraq, Odierno said. About half of the vehicles went to Afghanistan. Additionally, about 1.2 million other pieces of equipment have moved out of the country as well.
“That has gone very, very smoothly,” he said. “We’re about 95 percent with all of the equipment leaving Iraq that we wanted to get out by the 1st of September, so I feel very comfortable that we’re on track to reach those numbers.”
The equipment movement requires a “significant ” interagency and interservice effort, he said, noting the Defense Logistics Agency, U.S. Transportation Command and U.S. Central Command. It’s going so well that Odierno believes equipment expected to leave the country will be out ahead of time.
Additionally, as the United States moves equipment out, equipment excess to U.S. needs was identified. One example is soldier equipment that has been replaced. Also, there’s equipment that’s more expensive to ship back than just leave in the country. An example here would be generators, most of which are not 120 volts, but 220, compatible with Iraqi equipment. Such equipment has been identified and, as forces leave the equipment behind, Iraq takes it over.
However, it’s not just turned over.
“Iraq has shared some of the cost on the military equipment; it’s not been free,” Odierno said. “They have allocated I think $140 million to do this, so they’re paying a little bit, probably about 20 percent on the dollar for this equipment. But for us, it’s excess for our needs, but it’s something that the Iraqi army, air force or navy needs.”