The United States has approved an order for $700 million in military supplies for Iraq, including 5,000 Hellfire missiles. -CNN The air to ground missiles can be fired from helicopters and are effective anti-tank and anti-personnel weapons. 780 of the missiles were delivered so far this year with 366 more due next month. The Iraqi government is desperate for these missiles for their fight against ISIS. Congress still has to approve the sale.
My Comment:
This seems like a bad idea for a lot of different reasons. The most obvious one is that I have zero confidence in the Iraqi Government and Military right now. Iraq has very limited air support capabilities. They have few helicopters and even fewer attack fighters that are even capable of using these weapons. Even if they did they would have a limited effect on the battlefield. Hellfires did not turn the tide in Afghanistan against a determined Taliban enemy, and that was with the full might of America's military. Iraq's Air Force is tiny, and will have even less of an impact.
Also, there is a very good chance that these weapons could end up in the hands of ISIS. The Iraqi government has a very good chance of losing Baghdad and perhaps the whole country to ISIS. If that happens these weapons will be captured. Now I don't think ISIS would be able to field them in any way but they could sell them to third parties for use/reverse engineering.
I just had another thought. Rumors are that Iranian (or Russian) pilots are currently flying the SU-25's Iraq ordered from Russia. Should that be true, we could have Iranian pilots flying Russian planes shooting American missiles at European Muslim extremists. What an interesting world we live in.
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