I spotted a couple of photos of the resurrected Iraqi armor force in coverage of the elections.

The first pic has an interesting vehicle in the foreground -- is this a recovery vehicle?



Another T-55 ...



Apparently, these vehciles survived OIF after being abandoned near the Iraq-Iran border. They were rebuilt and are now back in service. The T-55 soldiers on ...

Very interesting, thanks for posting..


Henk

Howdy Bob,

Thx for taking the time to post the pics, I was kind of wondering if and when they were going to do that.
The photo of the 'recovery' (?) vehicle and it's somewhat odd pintel configuration reminds me of the earliest versions of the overhead MG arrangement on WW I aircraft, where the pilot would actually have to stand up in the cockpit while flying to engage the gun and fire at the enemy.....suffice to say, I would not want to be the operator of this weapon.

And as for the venerable T-55, dontcha just love it.

Tread.

I find it very interesting that while these are obviously recent pics (Crewmen wearing US chocChip cammies & green 'Fritz' helmets), the vehicles are still marked with & flying the old 'Regime' Flag as opposed to the newly adopted 'Republic' Flag...

Bob,get these posted up as soon as you can - I'm going thru a weird modelling period here with wanting to do Warsaw Pact Equipment in Sand and I really fancy a T55.. Am I totally losing it?

its nice 2 see the T-55 in friendly hands.
and see them back in service

It's interesting to see the Iraqis have ANY armor left. On the way out of Mosul my unit passed a HUGE junkyard that was full of cut up AFV hulls and turrets. There was every kind of old Soviet and Chinese armor you could think of. All of the hulls I could see were literally cut in half.

Aren't the T55's too old?

Well, nice pics. I think T55's are nice tanks....well maybe not to meet in combat, but they look good :-)

Thanks for sharing!

Martin

I like the fact they wear ODS desert uniform (are these BDUs or are they called differently?) too.
also, the vehicles' paint job seems to be brand new.

should make an intresting modelling subject.

Honestly, I am kind of suprised. I wasn't expecting to see any type of armored vehicle in Iraqi hands until the insurgency was quelled and all of the former regime was destroyed. Wouldn't want some ex-Repub Guard commander getting any ideas.
Kyle

If you are refering to the white with blue cresent above blue and yellow stripes flag, it sank faster than a stone in the Tigris. Too many people thought it looked too Israeli, the only country in the region to use blue. Some places have been seen flying the pre-1990 flag (no Arabic script), but the flag as shown in the pics is still the official flag and will likely remain so until the new parliment decides otherwise.



Rick

Yikes just saw that new flag.

No wonder Iraqis didn't like it.

Keep the old one. It was flown 40 years or something which was before Saddam. Japan still flys the same one all these years.

Back to the topic though. Its nice to see some Iraqi T-55's all in one piece for a change.

looks to me they're just the regular american (not the marines though) desert BDUs, i could be wrong but the picture is also a bit far away too....
the helmets are interesting, look like ww2 russian tanker helmets

Not Quite. While it's true that the people didn't care much for the new flag, it was still adopted by the Iraqi Governing Council. Although the Pan-Arabic unity flag (3 stars, no script) was in use for many years before Saddam asassinated his way to power, He ordered the "God is Great" script added after his "Victory" over the infidels in the first Gulf War(ODS). The IGC decided to break ties completely with that regime and in doing DID adopt the 'Peace Flag'.
Unpopular as it may be, for the current armed forces to fly the Regime flag on their vehicles would be akin to me, as a US Marine, deciding to mark my HMMWV with the cross of St. George just because some of my ancestors once served in the Coldstream Guards. I think it points up just how little actual control the government over there has over even their "own" troops.
As to the ING being reeqipped with armor, I'd say they need it to help quell some of the insurgency, but don't think our boys need to worry too much about the ING tuning rouge & duking it out for long. The T-55' record against the M-1 & Chally, & even the Bradley(!) is nothing short of abysmal. I've even witnessed firsthand M2 .50 cal. rounds penetratng the hull armor of old Syrian T-55's At close to 200 metres.

New paint jobs do make them look effective, though.

Bob, Yes. It looks like a slightly modified BTS-4.

Along with the T-55's, they've also been using T-69's, MTLB's w/ ZU-23's mounted on the back and various apc's donated by Jordan and I think some of the Gulf States. Some them include Spartan APC's(ex-Jordanian) and Panhard VCR 6x6(origin unknown).

I thought I read somewhere that Iraq also received some older M113s from Jordan.

Paul

Actually, much of the Iraqi armor that was abandoned was left undamaged because we knoew that we would have to rebuild their military and we didn't want to start from scratch. Around 08 April '03, we (3ID)were told to stop destroying abandoned vehicles and just disable them as we bypassed. This was to preserve them for future use. Once things began to calm down, May '03ish, we were given the mission to start rounding up the vehicles around the countryside and consolidating them in motor pools so they coud be used again adnm not fall into the wrong hands.

As for the uniforms, they are the older 6-color, "Chocolate Chip" DCUs (Desert Camoflage Uniform). Same cut as standard 3-color DCUs and BDUs. The tankers helmets are Soviet style soft helmets that were used on all Soviet tanks, they have to use them since the vehicle intercom/radio systems are made to work with them. They differ only slightly from WWII Russian tanker helmets, I think 3 ribs on top as opposed to 2.

I also agree that it is agood thing that we have them back in the hands of the Iraqi army. The inclusion of Iraqi troops is vital in putting down the insurrection. If the Iraqi army participates, then they lend credibility to the new government and show the Iraqi people that it is not an all non-Iraqi fight. I also think that they can be trusted. Remember, the Ba'ath party was like the Nazi party, if you wanted to go anywhere in the military or government, you had to be a member, didn't mean you believed in it. Also, we rebuilt the German Army after WWII in the same manner.

History desn't trumpet too loudly all the trouble we had with the German populace after WW2. It took a couple of years to quiet them down, but that is another subject for another day. The pictures came up with red x's for me unfortuneatly

nice pictures,wonder what kind of armor the new iraqi army will end up using?

Hello All,
Just a little background on me.. I just completed a tour as an Advisor to the Iraqi Army. Those of you that know me know that I am a tanker by trade. I spent my time advising and fighting with a regular Iraqi Army Unit and not Iraqi National Guard. I fought with my company alongside Marines in Falluja. Just as I was rotating out of Iraq in December the Iraqi Army was standing up an Armor Brigade. All of their Armored equipment was shipped in courtesy of the Armed Forces of Jordan, none of it is original Iraqi Stuff. Now just before I left the country I helped them scavenge some of their old equipment for spare parts... Also the uniforms that the Iraqi's wear are patterned after the U.S. but are either made in China, Jordan, or Iraq. The kevlar helmets they use are a cheaper Chinese copy of ours but still good. I do have tons of pictures that I will eventually post.

Semper FI
Andy