American Troops Leaving Iraq, Some Gear Staying

The American armed forces are due to end their combat mission in Iraq by August 31, 2010, with 50,000 or so troops slated to remain behind to continue training Iraqi forces and presumably offer assistance if the Baghdad government so requests. The Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraq calls for all American troops to be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011.

That means that over the next ten months, some 70,000 American troops will be leaving Iraq without replacement, and they’ll be taking most—but not all—of their gear with them. Michele Flournoy, the Obama administration’s Under Secretary of Defense told Congress this week that while the Pentagon says that there are about 3.3 million American “pieces of equipment” in Iraq, and that “the majority of the equipment currently in Iraq will not be transferred to the Iraqis, but will remain with U.S. forces,” a significant chunk of gear will stay behind to be used by the Iraqi Security Forces.

We know that many MRAPs in Iraq—those not sent to Afghanistan—will go into prepositioned stocks overseas instead of being carted all the way back to the United States. But what about the rest of it?

Flournoy said that a variety of agencies are working on it. The Army Materiel Command has deployed its Reposture Retrograde Task Force to Kuwait and Baghdad, while the Air Forces Central Command and Marine Force Central Command have dispatched liaison officers to help out. What’s more, she continued, “equipment and materiel have been divided into the following four categories: (1) Equipment and material from the Iraq Joint Operations Area that will be refurbished and ultimately redistributed to U.S. forces in Afghanistan; (2) Equipment and material that will be retrograded to home stations; (3) Equipment and material that will be retrograded to depot/reset programs; or (4) Equipment and material that will be transferred to the Government of Iraq or the Government of Afghanistan.”

When it comes to the equipment that will be handed over to the Iraqis, Flournoy said that it will include “excess equipment” like “tool kits and sets, individual clothing and equipment items such as helmets and body armor, and commercial trucks,” as well as what she termed “non-excess” items such as “9mm pistols, cargo trucks, airfield control and operations systems, M1114 up-armored HWMMVs, and armored gun trucks.” The value of this non-excess gear is set to be capped at $750 million.

Lots more to come on this in the near future, for sure, especially when you take into account Flournoy’s words of warning about the woeful state of the Iraqi economy, and its ability to provide for its own defense needs: “given the Government of Iraq’s budget shortfalls and the ISF’s requirements,” she said, “the Iraqi government may ultimately require additional assistance beyond the transfer of excess and non-excess equipment. We are still evaluating how much and what type of additional assistance may be needed.”

In other words, the bill has yet to come.

Comments

[David M]

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 10/23/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

http://www.thunderrun.us/2009/10/from-front-10232009.html

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Britain granted independence to Iraq in 1932, on the urging of King Faisal, though the British retained military bases and transit rights for their forces. King Ghazi ruled as a figurehead after King Faisal's death in 1933, while undermined by attempted military coups, until his death in 1939.