U.S. Army photo by SSGT Edward Daileg
Al-Monitor: Military audit confirms US tanks ended up with Iran-backed militias
As many as nine US tanks provided to Iraq’s military for the fight against the Islamic State (IS) have ended up in the hands of Iranian-backed militants, a government audit revealed on Monday.
The latest quarterly inspector general report for the US mission in Iraq and Syria confirms a string of on-the-ground reports that M1 Abrams battle tanks and other lethal equipment provided by the US government have ended up with the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). The news adds credence to recent reporting by Iraq’s Al-Ghad news agency that Abrams manufacturer General Dynamics has suspended maintenance support for 160 of its tanks amid allegations that the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) broke an agreement on their use.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: It is next to impossible to control your inventory in a war-zone during war time .... and I am sure that some allowances were made during the height of the conflict that as long as it was being used against the Islamic State, the U.S. would turn a blind eye. But that is then .... today the war is almost over, and it is time to get this equipment back.
Hat tip Fred for this link.
7 comments:
You'd think that their would be an electronic "kill switch" built in to fry the electronics if required like what the French did to Saddam.
My question is were they export models or were that US army M1A2 with seps and the armor? We've seen exports destroyed but not the top of the line versions
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.wired.com/2008/05/kill-switch-urb/amp
Only export models built specifically for Iraq and M1A1 at that. No depleted uranium armour and no reactive armour either
Caecus,
What about internally, electronics etc? I'm curious (don't know).
@James
The variant sold to Iraq is the M1A1SA (Situational Awareness)
It has FLIR sights, a rear view driver thermal camera, laser ragefinder, a telephone to allow infantry to talk to the crew. I imagine the Iraqi models lack Blue Force Tracking/FBCB2 which gives the crew a digital representation of the battlefield with icons for friendly/enemy units.
Caecus,
Thanks.
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