No More Middleman When Iraq Buys Tanks
By Jonathan Broder, CQ Staff
At a time when the Pentagon is winding down its presence in Iraq, retired Army Col. Timothy D. Ringgold sees the war-torn country as a land of commercial opportunity — for U.S. arms merchants at least.
Ringgold, a West Point graduate with a doctorate in economics and a 30-year military career that included battlefield commands, is the chief executive of Defense Solutions, a company that is selling tanks, some of them modernized, to the Iraqi military.
“As U.S. force draws down, major combat formations will leave,” he said by telephone from Baghdad. “Once they’re gone, the Iraqis will be out there on their own. So Iraq needs to start building its force now.”
Until last year, Iraq could buy military equipment only through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, in which the Pentagon acts as a middleman. But in June, U.S. officials in Iraq lifted those restrictions, permitting Baghdad to buy directly from weapons dealers. Ringgold says he seized upon the rule change.
Since gaining an Iraqi Trade Ministry license in December, Ringgold says, Defense Solutions has earned $5 million by selling the Iraqis 77 Soviet-built T-72 medium tanks that Ringgold picked up off used-tank lots in Eastern Europe for $50,000 apiece. Now he is poised to sell Iraq a full brigade of 120 upgraded T-91 tanks for about $400 million. The tanks have been stripped down to their frames and tricked out with new armor, guns, electronics and thermal sights. To make sure they won’t be a threat to U.S. forces in the future, the upgraded tanks fall short of U.S. military specifications.
Although Ringgold’s company and General Dynamics Corp. appear to have sewn up Iraq’s tank and heavy-mortar markets, he says there are plenty of other opportunities for U.S. weapons dealers. The market for armored personnel carriers is wide open, Ringgold notes. And as Iraq further exercises its sovereignty, he says, there will be chances to sell its armed forces both artillery and aerial drones.
“There is a huge opportunity for American companies in Iraq,” he says. Iraqis have a tremendous respect for American technology, and they can’t understand why American companies aren’t here, trying to address their needs. To be frank, I can’t either.”
