Monday, April 7, 2008

Latest Order of Battle: Iraq



The latest Iraqi Order of Battle has been released. In the MoD (Ministry of Defense) the Iraqi Army is putting 118,000 Personnel a year through basic training (18,830 per eight-week cycle), and is expanding the training to 130,000 men a year. The MoI (Ministry of the Interior) is growing in numbers and professionalism. The forces could approach a strength of 500,000, requiring a robust logistical and infrastructure building program to support this growth. MoI training is planned to grow to 117,000 per year by mid-2009. It is at 73,000 as of February. The Facilities Protection Service (FPS) graduated its first class of 103 students at Baghdad Police College under a new program to provide professional development training for all FPS guards in Iraq. The FPS is a professional guard force with approximately 107,787 guards that protect the Iraqi government's critical facilities and its infrastructure. Approximately 89,000 guards will eventually become part of the Ministry of Interior and undergo this same training. Focus on expansion of the Iraqi National Police (INP) continues to have priority in MoI. The INP is authorized at 2,500 personnel, with 721 currently assigned. Training of the Department of Border Enforcement (DBE) continues to be deferred while their training facilities are used for INP. Current force remains at adding forts to a planned total of 712.