BESMAYA RANGE –
Under a broiling sun, Iraqis of the 9th Armored Division
await their turn to drop into the turrets of their T-72 training tanks and fire
the coaxial machine guns.
The Iraqis are training at this range under the eyes of 300
Spanish, 80 British and 35 American soldiers, and of Marine Corps Gen. Joe
Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is here to see how the
training is going.
The Iraqis are motivated. The Spanish officer in command of
the Besmaya training effort said he expected 800 Iraqis to show up for the
four-week course at the beginning of April. One thousand came.
Year of Liberation
The Iraqis training at the range are mostly new recruit, who
will be based in Camp Taji when they finish training.
Iraqi Maj. Muhammed Abdel Kadir of the 2nd Battalion of the
9th Iraqi Armored Division spoke to reporters traveling with Dunford. Through
an interpreter, he said the unit began training at the beginning of the month.
The men train on four T-72s, two M-1 Abrams tanks and in three BMPs –
Russian-made infantry fighting vehicles.
The men are being paid, the major said, and supplies and
logistical support is improving. The soldiers received M-16 rifles and learned
the care and maintenance those weapons need, and they qualified in firing it.
They also familiarized themselves with other small weapons.
All expect to be part of the coming battle against the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. “This is the year of the liberation of
Mosul,” one of the men said. But there are still things that need to be done.
The most glaring is there are no 125 mm rounds for the T-72
tank’s main gun. The unit, which will fall in on T-72s when they get to Camp
Taji, has not fired the main gun.
Major Impediment
All this points to a major impediment to the Iraqi soldier’s
wish to liberate Mosul this year. “We have said time and again Napoleon’s old
saying ‘Amateurs talk strategy, experts talk logistics,’” said Army Col. Steve
Warren, the spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve,
who spoke to reporters earlier in the day. “It’s an incredibly important aspect
they have to master.”
The Iraqis have 125 mm ammunition somewhere in their system,
a Spanish official said, but they just can’t seem to deliver it efficiently.
American officials have talked on logistics and aviation
being “the long poles in the tent” for Iraqi security forces for years. And the
situation has improved. In the early days of the rebuilding, many soldiers
weren’t paid. Units didn’t have the manning they were supposed to have. Iraqi
soldiers hardly ever did regular “operator maintenance” on weapons systems or
vehicles. All these things are improving, officials said.
Depot Maintenance
But depot level maintenance, getting supplies -- bullets,
gasoline and beans -- from point A to point B, and ensuring soldiers have what
they need when they need it, are still works in progress. Investing in these
capabilities to be successful against ISIL, though, remains the long pole in the
tent.
The Iraqi military has to build up the logistics tail to
support operations directed at Mosul before it can take on ISIL in the city,
which is roughly 300 miles north of Baghdad. Tanks and tracked vehicles cannot
just drive there, as much of their useful lives would be used up completing the
journey. The Iraqis will have to ship the tanks and tracked vehicles to the
north -- along with spare parts, tools and other maintenance equipment they
will for the vehicles -- to preserve the capability and capacity of their new
mobile force.
To do so, the Iraqi government has to establish logistics
hubs in the north to support any offensive against ISIL. Camp Speicher near
Tikrit is an obvious depot, officials said, and another obvious point is
Makhmur in the Irbil governate. “But it has to be the Iraqis who do this,”
Warren said.