Formations 240-241-242: Rocket Bn, Rocket Bty and Rocket Pl
According to the "The Iraqi Army: Organization and Tactics" the towed MRLs (107mm Type 63 and the likes) were used in special “light batteries” composed by twelve launchers organized in three platoons with four launchers each.
I therefore suggest the following changes
Formation 242 be renamed “Rocket Sec” and have only two units
Formation 241 be renamed “Rocket Pl” and have only four units
Formation 240 be renamed “Rocket Bty” and have twelve MRL. Availability dates for this one would also be changed to 1/1960-4/2003 instead of current 1/1970-12/1981, which does not make sense.
Such organization would also be more useful for gaming purposes in (who’s going to buy the 27 rocket launchers of the current bn anyway?)
A towed and offboard version of the 152mm D-20 should be added, using the already available weapon n. 230 152mm D20 FH..
Unit 426 from and unit 177 from OOB 11 Russia can be used as templates.
Availability dates: 1/1975-4/2003
Many sources and plenty of pictures like the following support its availability in the iraqi inventory.
http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/imgs/d20.jpg
Unit 97: 180mm S-23 FG
Unit 181: 180mm S23 Pl
Final availability date should be restricted to 12/1988.
If they had them at all, none were probably available by OIF. They aren’t mentioned in many sources in first place and no pictures of it have emerged. The ordnance disposal reports have not turned up any 180mm ammo for them either despite the fact they are very comprehensive. I would guess that at a minimum there were not many of them to start with and they were used up well before 2003.
EDIT
Alternatively Formation 240 could have a 1/1970-4/2003 availability. But it should be available in the Iran-Iraq/GW1/OIF period and not stop at 1981.
Iraqi errors report - Part 2
Threaded Mode