Article

2011-09-27 Iraq

US Mil handing Iraq Schtuff worth $Billions

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Posted by Pappy 2011-09-27 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 F-16's, which I'm sure the local pro-Iran/Shia Boyz will be glad to attempt to reverse engineer + give to Iran once elected to power.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2011-09-27 00:09|| 2011-09-27 00:09|| Front Page Top

#2 On a lot of equipment, it is cheaper to let it in place than make it complaint with USDA cleanliness regulations to bring it home. And those bases were used for 7 years by US troops, so they are not brand new. Besides which, what are you going to do, dig around the base, lift it up, and haul the whole damned thing out of the country? And the Turks are just as likely to share F-16 technology with the Iranians as the Iraqis are. Besides which, the Iranians have had a hard time reverse engineering a freaking F-5, let alone something as advanced as a F-16.

Posted by Shieldwolf 2011-09-27 02:16|| 2011-09-27 02:16|| Front Page Top

#3 Latrines are going to Egypt for Gaza tunnel combat.

Posted by Skidmark 2011-09-27 02:34|| 2011-09-27 02:34|| Front Page Top

#4 F-16s? I don't think so.

Posted by gorb 2011-09-27 02:36|| 2011-09-27 02:36|| Front Page Top

#5 But what about the Abrams tanks? Those should come home.

Posted by gorb 2011-09-27 02:37|| 2011-09-27 02:37|| Front Page Top

#6 The show must go on.

Posted by gr(o)mgoru 2011-09-27 03:56|| 2011-09-27 03:56|| Front Page Top

#7 The war equipment will work precisely as long as proper maintenance is done with proper replacement parts. The desks, office chairs, and white boards have no doubt gotten hard wear, so the true depreciated value isn't anything like the price we paid to import American supplies into an active war zone.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-09-27 08:26|| 2011-09-27 08:26|| Front Page Top

#8 Bottom line is that it is cheaper to give it away than to ship it back, needing extensive repair, refurbishment, etc.

Tanks, especially, are a major pain, and there is a huge backlog at Anniston Army Depot. For the most part, we are phasing out heavy brigades in favor of Stryker units that are faster, cheaper, and about as lethal.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-09-27 08:49|| 2011-09-27 08:49|| Front Page Top

#9 Construction is expensive in an active war zone

Given they're done by contractors in that war zone since we downsized the military from over a couple million to something much smaller - no organic civil engineer units of the numbers found in previous major conflicts in the 20th century. That means paying a premium on labor costs [well above Bacon-Davis Act which includes provisions for paying workers on-site no less than the locally prevailing union wages and benefits paid on similar projects]. As physical property, its' not coming home. Never has. Anyone want to run the numbers on the constructions abandoned after WWII and the Cold War?

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-09-27 09:04|| 2011-09-27 09:04|| Front Page Top

#10 For the most part, we are phasing out heavy brigades in favor of Stryker units that are faster, cheaper, and about as lethal.

Yeah right, that is until the bad guys begin firing at them with mere 50 cal MGs and there are gazillions of them hanging around.

Posted by JFM 2011-09-27 09:44|| 2011-09-27 09:44|| Front Page Top

#11 #10 For the most part, we are phasing out heavy brigades in favor of Stryker units that are faster, cheaper, and about as lethal.

Last place you want to be in an IED environment is inside a Stryker, I assure you.

Posted by Besoeker 2011-09-27 10:01|| 2011-09-27 10:01|| Front Page Top

#12 Well the old 113's tended to look like a collander after an encounter with a Soviet .51 MG so I wonder about the collective wisdom of the Stryker concept. Is it actually more effective or just cheaper?

Posted by Bill Clinton 2011-09-27 10:59|| 2011-09-27 10:59|| Front Page Top

#13 Is it actually more effective or just cheaper?

I know which I'd pick.

Posted by Pappy 2011-09-27 12:52|| 2011-09-27 12:52|| Front Page Top

#14 Looks like mostly infrastructure stuff.

Richardson explained that much of that category consists of what they call "FOB in a box." When the Iraqis take over a Forward Operating Base, he said, they also get the things that go with it, such as containerized housing units, water and fuel tanks, air conditioning units, generators, refrigerators, porta-johns, beds and mattresses, office equipment, fences, dining facilities and so on.

According to Lt. Col Melinda F. Morgan, a Pentagon spokeswoman, some 12,490 excess defense items worth $70.5 million have been turned over to the Iraqis, with 7,000 more, worth about $40 million, to go. That category includes such things as older versions of weapons, vehicles, and body armor.

Finally, U.S. forces have also given the Iraqis 1,251 non-excess military items worth $47.7 million, Morgan said. That category includes such items as up-armored Humvees and 50-caliber machine guns, Richardson said.

No mention of "tanks". Or F-16s...

Posted by tu3031 2011-09-27 13:41|| 2011-09-27 13:41|| Front Page Top

#15 Now just figure that anything we leave in Iraq will find its way to Iran. We messed up in 1991. When we had driven the Iraqis out of Kuwait we should have turned our muzzles on Saudi and said "stick em up".

Posted by jim 2011-09-27 14:48|| 2011-09-27 14:48|| Front Page Top

#16 Most of this stuff is already hogged out, and inshalla maintenance won't improve it any...

Posted by M. Murcek 2011-09-27 17:13|| 2011-09-27 17:13|| Front Page Top

#17 And that is the other point, the level of maintenance on well-used equipment is expensive enough to make it cheaper to replace it than keep using and repairing it. And if the Iraqis do the normal Arab level of maintenance on that equipment, it will be unusable in two years.

Posted by Shieldwolf 2011-09-27 18:06|| 2011-09-27 18:06|| Front Page Top

#18 And about the Strykers, they have at least as good of armor as the M113 series and can support bolt on armor that stops 14.5mm rounds. Nowhere do I see that we are getting rid of Bradleys in favor of Strykers, and the Bradleys can stop 30mm fire. And most of the units getting the Strykers are leg infantry units and this is the way to mechanize them.

Posted by Shieldwolf 2011-09-27 18:11|| 2011-09-27 18:11|| Front Page Top

#19 Bah. Strykers are a good way to MOTORIZE our troops. Mechanizing takes a much better vehicle. Strykers are little more than school buses with guns.

All you Rantburgers say a prayer tomorrow morning for the brave soldiers who rode out in Strykers today. Because of them you have slept safely in your bed, even though the vehicle OUR government provided for them was weak and served them poorly.

Posted by rammer 2011-09-27 21:03|| 2011-09-27 21:03|| Front Page Top