Iraq signs contracts with US and France for artillery and advanced weapons.

Iraq’s Ministry of Defense signed contracts with the United States and France to import advanced weapons and strengthen artillery, the commander of the artillery class in the ministry, Major General Abd-Al-Ardawi, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) on Sunday, May 8, citing a senior military commander.
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Live-fire with a French CAESAR self-propelled howitzer (Picture source: U.S. Army National Guard/Staff Sgt. Jeff Clements)

"The state continues to develop weapons for the security services in importing guns that target the enemy at long distances, after it has effectively proven it effect in battles. It considers these weapons better than aircraft and rifles", Ardawi added. "The import of new guns will be part of the agreements with European countries", he stressed. The report did not elaborate on the types of weapons or mention any other details on the contracts. So, no clue enabling us to assume what the other « advanced systems » may be.

Regarding the artillery, as the fight against ISIS/Daesh is referred to, and provided the contract for artillery concerns France, one may assume that it means French company Nexter’s combat-proven CAESAR 155mm self-propelled howitzer. If it were U.S. howitzers, it would be M109A6, probably not A7 Paladins.

Despite the fact that the Iraqi army includes a lot of Russian-made equipment, and that Russia seems to remain an important partner of Iraq, no contract for new Russian-made weapons is mentioned.