Who armed Iraq?

[aerocontrols]

Since we talk about this a lot, I thought I might point out that SIPRI has compiled major conventional weapons transfered to Iraq expressed in US $m. at constant (1990) prices for the period 1973-2002.

Imported weapons to Iraq (IRQ) in 1973-2002

USSR____________25145
France___________5595
China____________5192
Czechoslovakia___2880
Poland___________1681
Brazil____________724
Egypt_____________568
Romania___________524
Denmark___________226
Libya_____________200
USA_______________200
South Africa______192
Austria___________190
Switzerland_______151
Yugoslavia________107
Germany (FRG)______84
Italy______________84
UK_________________79
Hungary____________30
Spain______________29
East Germany (GDR)_25
Canada _____________7
Jordan______________2


SIPRI (http://projects.sipri.se/armstrade/atirq_data.html)

MattJ

[My Final Spider]

One silly question:

Who gave Iraq biological weapons in the 80's?

I think it starts with a "U"...?

[aerocontrols]

Originally posted by My Final Spider
One silly question:

Who gave Iraq biological weapons in the 80's?

I think it starts with a "U"...?

It's not a silly question, or at least it wouldn't be if you had posed it in a serious manner.

Just posting some more useful links.

Here's one. (http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/mbts-pr.cfm)

During the 1991 Gulf War, most of the Iraqi Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) encountered by Allied Forces during Operation Desert Storm were non-upgraded T-54/55, T-62, T-72 and Type 59/69s.


Here's another one. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/crisis_in_the_gulf/forces_and_firepower/53903.stm)

The International Institute for Strategic Studies says Iraq has more than 310 fighter aircraft, but around half are in poor condition.

130 ground attack aircraft and 180 air superiority fighters, mainly French, Russian and Chinese-built, including MiG-21s, MiG-23s, MiG-25s, MiG-29s, and Sukhoi Su-17s, Su-20s and Su-25s and some Mirage planes

6 Tupolev Tu-22 bombers

And another one. (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/airforce.htm)

Iraq's more than 500 combat aircraft were formed into two bomber squadrons, eleven fighter-ground attack squadrons, five interceptor squadrons, and one counterinsurgency squadron of 10 to 30 aircraft each. Support aircraft included two transport squadrons. As many as ten helicopter squadrons were also operational, although these formed the Army Air Corps. The Air Defense Command piloted the MiG-25, MiG-21, and various Mirage interceptors and manned Iraq's considerable inventory of surfaceto -air missiles (SAMs).

In terms of numbers of combat aircraft, the Iraqi Air Force was the largest in the Middle East in August 1990.


Russia, China, and France. And what countries most loudly are opposing the war in Iraq right now?

[fftanier]

The Siri statistic covers a range of years starting in 1973.

I'm not sure how relevant the data is for the era between 1973 and the Iran-Iraq war staring in 1980.

We officially supported Iraqi offenses against Iran until the end of 1987. Most of the Iraqi equipment was French and Russian at that point, but we didn't mind while we were riding shotgun.

Most of Iran's equipment was . . . American, left over from the Shah.

There's been a recent tendency to blame the French for "arming" Iraq, 20 years ago, when the politics in the region were quite different. Any news article that condemns the French for this while ignoring Iraq's support in the same era isn't really reporting the situation accurately.

[crackmonkey]

I think it's more like protesting the supercilious French holier-than-thou attitude regarding Iraq, while its been business as usual for them since - well, since the 20s, I believe. The fact that they built the Osirak nuke reactor, sold Iraq a great deal of chem weapons, and continued to deliver Mirage parts up until this year.
Makes me wanna stomp on a beret.

[aerocontrols]

Originally posted by fftanier
The Siri statistic covers a range of years starting in 1973.

I'm not sure how relevant the data is for the era between 1973 and the Iran-Iraq war staring in 1980.

The relevance of the data would depend on the question one is asking.

The SIPRI data also separated by year, (I think you'll forgive me for not presenting it all) if you are interested in excluding 1973-1980 data to find a statistic that is more relevant to a particular question you might ask.

MattJ

[fftanier]

Okay, here's the question:

Are the French GOVERNMENT's arms sales to Iraq, during a period in which such actions violate U.N. policies (say, post 1990), existant, substantial, or significant?

What does the data say for 1990-2002? If you could, provide France's breakdown by year.

Thanks!

[aerocontrols]

Originally posted by fftanier
Okay, here's the question:

Are the French GOVERNMENT's arms sales to Iraq, during a period in which such actions violate U.N. policies (say, post 1990), existant, substantial, or significant?

What does the data say for 1990-2002? If you could, provide France's breakdown by year.

Thanks!

The answer was two clicks away assuming your computer can read pdfs... But I'll give it to you anyway.

SIPRI records no arms sales to Iraq by anyone from 1991-2002.

In 1990, France was the second-largest arms supplier at $281 million.

MattJ