U.S. Helps Set Up Iraqi Military Logistics Capability

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2005 - Work is progressing to set up a logistics system for the new Iraqi military, a senior U.S. military officer in Iraq said today.

The new Iraqi military needs a dependable logistics system to keep it supplied and self-reliant, Army Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chief of the Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, told Pentagon reporters during a satellite news conference from Iraq.

The Iraqi military's logistics system will have a national depot located in Tajik, north of Baghdad, Dempsey said, along with five regional supply support units that will each have two divisions that will draw supplies.

"All five of those regional support units are built and in various stages of preparation to become self-reliant," Dempsey said.

Dempsey said the supply link to Iraqi tactical units will be provided by 10 motor transport regiments. The transport regiments will be comprised of hundreds of trucks, Dempsey said, that deliver supplies down to headquarters and support companies at the battalion level.

All the logistics headquarters and support companies will be set up by April 2006, Dempsey said. Afterward the motor transport regiments will be trained up and fielded, he said. Dempsey said most of those units' equipment will be on hand in the next six months.

"Then, it's a matter of training the logisticians," Dempsey said. The Iraqi Army's Service Support Institute in Tajik recently graduated its 1,000th Iraqi soldier, he said.

The new logistics elements will be attached to those Iraqi divisions judged to be closest to being able to operate independently of U.S. and other coalition support, Dempsey said.

Related Site:

Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq [http://www.mnstci.iraq.centcom.mil]

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