Iraq is heading towards developing its defense system by producing Iraqi weapons locally and attracting investments in this field, in a new step followed by Iraq after the arms industry was previously monopolized by government facilities.
After reducing the bill for purchasing weapons and ammunition by 30 percent, the Military Industries Authority announced on Tuesday the entry of copper into civilian products, electric civilian cars, and military equipment.
Iraq possesses vast mineral wealth, in addition to its oil wealth, but this wealth has not been fully utilized yet, and its full potential has not been tapped into. Copper is concentrated in Sulaymaniyah Governorate in the Kurdistan Region, covering the entire country, within a volcanic range, and estimates of the volume of the mineral vary between 10 to 20 million tons.
It is worth mentioning that Iraq established the Military Industries Company in 2015, which took the industrial area in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, as its headquarters, after the invasion of some Iraqi provinces by ISIS. In 2019, the first steps were taken to restore military production, represented by the parliament’s approval of the Military Industries Authority Law, which was repealed by civilian administrator Paul Bremer in 2003.
The head of the authority, Mustafa Ati Hassan, said in a statement that the great and continuous support of Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mustafa al-Kadhimi, in encouraging and localizing industries, has led to the opening of multiple factories in various important fields to support security forces in military industries, light and medium weapons, as well as light and medium arms, armored vehicles, drones, cameras, night vision devices, jamming devices, communication devices, and warships.
Hassan emphasized that the authority will play a major role in supporting the national economy by localizing military and civilian industries, indicating that copper has been introduced into civilian products that serve the ministries of electricity and industry, as well as civilian and military electric cars.
On April 17th of the current year, Iraq signed an arms deal to purchase 41 aircraft after a meeting between Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and US President Joe Biden at the White House.
On April 4th of the current year, MP Awad al-Kadu announced Iraq’s intention to reduce the bill for purchasing weapons and ammunition by 30 percent, confirming that the production of defense weapons is part of an Iraqi strategy that contributes to securing the needs of its military institution and maintaining its readiness to defend the country.
It is worth mentioning that the Military Industries Authority aims to establish a city for military industries this year, and it has achieved profits worth 40 billion and concluded contracts exceeding 367 billion dinars during the past year.
In March 2023, the Military Industries Authority resumed the production of light weapons such as pistols and machine guns, after a hiatus of about two decades, following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 and the destruction and looting of all Iraqi military factories that used to produce various weapons and equipment.
Before the fall of the previous regime, the Military Industries included about 33 companies with about 47,000 workers. Their ownership was transferred to the ministries of industry, defense, and finance before being reattached to the Military Industries Authority in 2020.
It is worth mentioning that military manufacturing facilities were completely destroyed and looted after 2003, becoming ruins, where experts accuse neighboring countries of being behind this, as they do not want Iraq to prosper. Many military manufacturing personnel have been assassinated and displaced.
