The iraquis seem to be equipped with lots of mortars and rocket powered grenades, but little else. Do they have anything in their hand held armoury that could take out a challenger tank for instance, or are the tanks pretty safe - even in street fighting. What happened to the bazookas?
From a 1996 Jane’s report:
*Many analysts believe that Iraqi ground forces have retained a very strong capability in one particular area: anti-tank warfare. While the army lost large numbers of anti-tank weapons during the war, it is still believed to retain quantities of good equipment - including MILAN man-portable guided missiles; HOT, AS-11s and AS-12s mounted on PAH-1 and SA.342 helicopters; and AT-2s mounted on Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters. In addition, there is a range of weapons mounted on armoured vehicles, including HOT, MILAN, AT-1, AT-3 and AT-4 guided missiles. The army still has several thousand 85 mm and 100 mm anti-tank guns and heavy recoilless rifles. It also retains a certain capability in the area of tube artillery, although it lost a lot of equipment during the war. It has an estimated 150 self-propelled artillery weapons, ranging from 122 mm to 155 mm (in comparison with an estimated 500 before the war) and probably about 1,800 towed artillery weapons (105 mm to 155 mm) compared with up to 5,000 before the war. *
In addition to the above, Iraq may have gotten their hands on at least a few late-generation Russian AT-14 Kornet anti-tank missiles. See report below:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/SciTech/iraq_kornetFAQ030327.html
- Tamerlane
Unless the Iraqis get their hands on some modern anti-tank missiles, our tanks are fairly invulnerable head on. Attacks on the side with grenades or RPG increase the chance of a damaging a tread, but won’t put the tank out of action. Attacks with heavy weapons from the rear of the tank stand a good chance of knocking out the tank’s engine, although the crew will likely be unharmed.
Despite the excellent protection the allied tanks offer, I doubt they’ll be brought into cities where they could become trapped and swarmed by infantry.
The reason I asked is that I have been unable to get a single example of a missile attack on one of our tanks (except friendly fire). This may be because they have stayed out of range of course.
Maybe, maybe not. See the ABC report I linked.
In general though, the best missile weapons are going to be in the hands of Republican Guards forces that have only recently been engaged.
- Tamerlane
In Gulf1 we didnt lose a single man on a tank crew from enemy fire. So sufffice to say they have the ability to destroy a tank from time to time, but the crews are very safe considering the situation they are in.
sorry Tamerlane should have read your link. Hmmm, lets hope they have only a few of the Kornets
A picture and just a little more info on the Kornet:
http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/default.asp?target=kornet_anti_tank_missile.htm
- Tamerlane
Some reports I saw on-air suggested that the Iraqis fired those anti-tank weapons from the back of one of the most formidable of desert weapons–a pickup truck.
I’m not kidding when I say “formidable.” When Lybia sent modern armored forces (well, T-55s, anyway) into Chad, they were confronted by a pickup army using machine guns and anti-tank weapons mounted on Toyota trucks. During one Chaddian counteroffensive in 1987, a brigade-sized Lybian force–including tanks–guarding an airfield was overwhelmed by a smaller Toyota-mounted force.
Yeah, but our tanks are usually protected from such mobile infantry. Its unusual for them to get close enough to hit us like that at all.