"This is really a milestone I think, and the beginning of something big
as we transition from the counter-insurgency fight to ultimately an army
that is conducting training," U.S. Brig. Gen. Steven Salazar, deputy
commanding general, Coalition Army Advisory Training Team, said.
"We have been so busy with fighting the insurgency that there really has
been little or no time for conducting training at a larger organizational
level," Salazar said. "But thanks to the success of the Iraqi operations,
which has created such a low-level of violence, we are at now ready for [the
Warfighter Program]."
The collective unit training would enable Iraqi soldiers to employ new
equipment. They included U.S.-origin M-16 assault rifles, up-armored Humvee
combat vehicles and Single-Channel Ground-Air Radio Systems, or SINGARS
radios.
"More and more the Iraqis are doing training for themselves now,"
Salazar, responsible for training and equipping the Iraq Army, said. "Basic
training is conducted by the Iraqi army, military occupational specialty
qualification training is conducted by the Iraqi army and noncommissioned
officer training -- at all three levels -- is being conducted by the Iraqi
army now."
Officials said the Iraq Army would concentrate on logistics, including
development of the Taji National Depot. They said intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance formations as well as engineer formations would also be
the focus over the next year.
"Those are in the process of being built and will be complete by and
large by the end of this year," Salazar said. "We expect self sustainment,
in terms of logistics by the middle of 2009."
