Iraqi Army

From Daily Escape

The Iraqi Army, composed of 475,000 active personnel, is the largest component of the country's military by far (excluding the paramilitary People's Army) - and even larger than the army of Iraq's much larger neighbor, Iran. Headquartered in Baghdad, the army includes seven corps, five armored divisions (each with one armored brigade and one mechanized brigade), three mechanized divisions (each with one armored brigade and two mechanized brigades), and six Special Forces brigades. The growth in the manpower and equipment inventories of the Iraqi armed forces was facilitated by Iraq's capacity to pay for a large standing army and was occasioned by the prospect of a war with Iran. Whereas in 1978 active-duty military personnel numbered less than 200,000, and the military was equipped with some of the most sophisticated weaponry of the Soviet military arsenal, by 1987 the quality of offensive weapons had improved dramatically, and the number of new under arms had increased almost fourfold; the size of its arsennel is even larger today. The Iraqi army today is believed to have about 4,500 tanks; about 4,000 armored vehicles; more than 3,000 towed and self-propelled artillery pieces; a number of FROG-7 and Scud-B surface-to-surface missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers; and an array of approximately 4,000 (some self-propelled) antiaircraft guns. The bulk of its armaments are of Soviet origin, although some have also been purchased from the West as well as various non-aligned Third World nations. The army's size, high standards of training, and high quality equipment - as well as the reported presence of Soviet advisors in Iraq - have aroused the respect and fear of its neighbors.