AKA Iraq goes full Blue Peter. Not to besmirch the name of that fine show, but just like when Blue Peter fashioned a makeshift Tracy Island back in 1993 using a yogurt pot, toilet roll and a metric f**ktonne of papier-mâché (the clip is on YouTube if you search for it), the Iraqi effort to produce domestic weapons yielded some surprising results - pretty impressive from a technical point of view when you consider the effect of international sanctions and an empty bank account.
As the talented Ms Andrews once sang, the beginning is a very good place to start and in this tale, it is the creation of the State Organisation for Technical Industries (SOTI) in 1970 that paved the way for the early steps Iraq took to work with arms producers overseas. Add in some international politics and shenanigans, stir, then simmer until war with Iran is declared. Now rename the SOTI into the Military Industrial Commission (MIC). Bring to the boil by adding Scud's, MiG-25's and a soupçon of anti-radar missiles, and thus begins the journey towards a domestic conventional weapons industrial base. A touch of in-flight refuelling may add a certain... je ne sais quoi...
It wasn't just the French (see what I did there) and the Soviets who were supporting the Iraqi regime. There were links to Brazil and Argentina, the latter of whom had a ballistic missile program that I had never heard of before, which certainly gave the impression that Iraq was serious about building up its war fighting capability.
Of course, if you want to talk about Iraqi conventional weaponry, you need to mention Gerald Bull. When not keep Teesport's custom's officials busy, Bull also had a hand in long range 155mm artillery and was much more successful in that arena than any supergun design associated with him.
Combined with the events of the Iran-Iraq War, that's about two thirds of this book. The rest concerns itself with the legacies of the principle characters, the 1991 Gulf War and the follow up period to the end of the decade.
The writing is clear and concise throughout and the 68-page length is about right. What was quite surprising was how adept the Iraqi military were in fielding some rather "funky" designs, and by funky, I mean plain weird. Much like Iran stuck HAWK surface to air missiles on their fighters and Standard SAM's inplace of the HAWK's on their usual launchers, Iraq bolted Exocet missiles to a Dassault Falcon 50 business jet, and older AA-2 Atoll (R-3S and R-3R infra-red guided air to air missiles) were stuck on BMP chassis' because it filled a perceived need (and there was little choice but to improvise). Much like the fictional A-Team or MacGyver, the resultant weapons were, at least, functional, if not entirely practical - I mean, biz-jet with Exocets. What's next? Vulcan's with Sea Dart's as an interceptor? (And yes, gentle reader, there were plans and thoughts about that very thing...).
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| Check out Vulcan's Hammer by Chris Gibson pages 171-174. I prefer the AIM-54 Phoenix option myself... |
And still there is more. Continued ballistic missile developments, ad-hoc Electronic Counter Measures aircraft, Airborne Early Warning aircraft, tankers and drones - the effort expended in being able to demonstrate any capability (no matter how asymmetric to the opponent's) is truly astounding.
As befits the topic, there is a wealth of contemporary photography on display, as well as many screen grabs from video presentations of the time. Maps are detailed and the included artwork is of the usual high quality. As always, the bibliography is a cracking source of further reading.
This is another welcome tome from Helion & Co and will be of great benefit to those who have an interest in the period, the theatre or maybe want to put something on the table - there are quite a few "what-ifs" in capability this book offers that could liven up any hypothetical game. And, whilst there were no Blue Peter badges for the boffins who stuck these projects together, Ali Altobchi and company deserve a symbolic one for this fine volume. You can buy Al-Hussein direct from Helion & Co here or from their trade stands at various UK wargames shows - you can find out which ones they attend via their website and social media links.
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