Iraq seeks French drones and jets, additional Russian tanks

An Iraqi delegation is scheduled to visit France in the near future to inspect the drones.
Ricklefs, who has recently spoken to Iraqi defense officials about the procurement plans, said there isn’t yet a contract for the drones. At this point, he believes the delegation will “perform a quality check” on the unmanned systems.
The French Armed Forces Ministry did not respond to several requests for comment on the visit, nor on the types or numbers of aircraft that might be offered.
In a January interview by the Iraqi News Agency with the chief of the country’s land forces, he revealed the negotiations to procure French drones. “Iraq is negotiating many contracts including armed drones capable of flying for 30 hours in Iraqi airspace and of addressing targets and continuously monitoring various regions, with proven ability and effectiveness,” Lt. Gen Qasim Al-Muhammadi said.
Ricklefs said Iraq is also in negotiations for Pakistani UAVs. “Pakistan has also offered to sell Iraq 20 drones, but the MoD is still analyzing the offer,” he told Defense News.
Additionally, Al-Muhammadi said in the interview, “there are plans to increase the number of tanks and increase the divisions and brigades in order to increase the capabilities of the Iraqi Army.” The service currently operates American Abrams and Russian T-90 tanks, he added.
Ricklefs noted that the MoD is seeking additional T-90 tanks from Russia, having already ordered 73 2016. The Iraqi MoD announced in June 2018 that, as part the order’s first batch, 39 of those T-90S tanks were delivered to the 9th Division’s 35th Brigade. This brigade was equipped with M1 Abrams tanks, but they were transferred to the 34th Brigade after the T-90 delivery, the ministry has said.
“There are excellent artillery systems with high accuracy that will be imported from France, in addition to weapon systems equipped with night goggles,” Al-Muhammadi said in the interview. “There are many contracts signed by Iraq to procure equipment, some of which have already arrived at the national port, and others are still under production.”
In terms of local production, he described “a serious desire to develop Iraqi weapons, and there are projects that have been launched already to enable us to manufacture systems ourselves.”