On 13JUN2019, the Iraqi army unveiled a new tank; the al-Kafeel-1.  Note that it uses an M2 .50 caliber machine gun in a remote controlled mount.  Russian news sources say the tank is based on Iraq’s experience fighting Islamic extremists, and Iraq’s use of the M1A1M.   It is strange that most ‘western’ news sources didn’t report about the Iraqi developed tank until more than a year after its unveiling.  Speculative reports say it was developed with help from China.

 

Ukrainian made BTR-4, reports say Iraq was not happy with the BTR-4, claiming they were not ‘new builds’ and had corroded bodies (Ukrainian investigation links the defective BTR-4s to the now infamous corruption scandal plaguing the Office of the U.S. President).

BTR-4 variants, the BSEM-4K ambulance and BTR-4 armored personnel carriers with 30mm gun turrets.

A mystery modified M113 seen at Camp Taji, February 2016.  It’s not a ACV or YPR765.  A homegrown modification?

Camp Taji, February 2016.

M113, Kirkush Military Training Base, April 2011.

MTLB, May 2005.

March 2007.  This tank is a Chinese Type 69 (Iraqi designation for Chinese Type 69 is T-55B), as denoted by the headlights on both fenders and the camera/laser sighting system on the mantlet.

May 2005, Type 69/T-55B.

BMP-1, October 2005:

BMP-1, January 2007:

Video Camp Taji boneyard, T-72 turret lift, 2009:

T-62, March 2010:

Graveyard of T-62 and T-72, October 2005:

T-72, Camp Butler/Butler Gunnery Range, February 2006:

Low quality video from February 2006, supposedly it was the first time Iraqis were able to fire their T-72s since the U.S. invasion:

T-72, Forward Operating Base Hammer, October 2008:

2008 Besmaya Range gunnery video (by U.S. Army Specialist Neil A. Stanfield):

T-72, Besmaya Range Complex, April 2010:

Checking out a ‘newer’ T-72, apparently donated by NATO-Czech Republic, April 2016:

Iraqis began training on U.S. M1A1 Abrams in 2008-09:

According to a U.S. Defense Department news release, between August 2010 and the end of 2011, 140 M1A1M Abrams tanks were delivered to Iraq as part of a 2008 military sales agreement.

According to the the U.S. Army, these were the last of the 140 Abrams delivered to Iraq:

In 2016, BMP-1s were positioned for the Mosul Offensive against so-called Islamic State:

In February 2018, it was revealed that an Iraqi militia unit funded by Iran acquired nine of the M1A1Ms.

In June 2018, Iraq announced it was trading the M1A1M for the Russian T-90S.

The first T-90S and T-90SK were delivered by November 2019.

M109A1, Firebase Saham, December 2018.

For some strange reason the official U.S. Army information that accompanied the pic states this is a “M109 Paladin”, but it is clearly not an M109A6 Paladin (which is a radical upgrade of the M109 series), it is a M109A1.

In 2008, U.S. Army officials decided to allow Iraq to refurbish several M109A1s abandoned in the ‘boneyard’ of Camp Taji: “Last fall, our brigade commander was given guidance by the 9th IA commander to pull out of the Taji boneyard roughly a battalion’s worth of M109A1 howitzers.”-Major Matthew DeLoia, Military Transition Team-Pennsylvania National Guard’s 109th Field Artillery Regiment, July 2009

VEHICLE I-D: UKRAINIAN ARMOR

VEHICLE I-D: GEORGIAN T-72 & BMP