HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Three years after the US Army's departure from Iraq, in which much of its gear was handed over to the Iraqis, Army Materiel Command (AMC) has returned to find that the equipment was not sustained in the same manner as the US Army would have, according to the Army's most senior logistics official.
Gen. Dennis Via, AMC chief, of Army Materiel Command (AMC), shared some details of its efforts to field and sustain equipment for the Iraqis, all with a limited workforce made up partially of contractors. Part of the effort is shoring up Iraq's ability to sustain the equipment itself.
Via told reporters at the Association of the US Army convention on Thursday that the effort involved "re-establishing processes that were very mature at the end of the war," that were part of a "very responsive and involved logistics infrastructure to provide support to our forces," since turned over the the Iraqis.
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"Re-establishing that is a challenging ordeal, as you might imagine, because we're not the in force as we were before the end of the war," Via said, adding later: "It's now providing sustainment, parts, contractors providing logistics and sustainment … repairing some of the systems that are battle damaged. It's pretty much across the array of equipment that they have acquired and have on hand."
Based on US Central Command requirements for the advise and assist mission and through the foreign military sales process, AMC is providing systems approved by the State Department to Iraqi forces, to including tanks, artillery systems and small arms.
AMC is also ensuring troops involved in the advise and assist mission are equipped and their equipment sustained.
In December, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of $3 billion in possible sales, to include 175 M1A1 Abrams tanks and associated radios, machine guns and ammunition. The deal, which included logistics support, required five US government and 100one hundred contractor representatives to travel to Iraq for a period of up to five years for delivery, system checkout, program support and training.
A separate sale involved worth $579 million involved 1,000 M1151A1 up-armored high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicles, (HMMWVs), 1,000 M2 .50 caliber machine guns and 1,000 MK-19 40mm grenade launchers.
The deal included radios, communication equipment, repair and spare parts, publications and technical documentation, tools and test equipment, personnel training and training equipment, US government and contractor logistics and technical support services, and other related elements of logistics support.
Email: jgould@defensenews.com
Twitter: @reporterjoe
Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
