Monday, 17 January 2022 (YJC)_ An Iraqi website published a report detailing the performance of the American company "Lockheed Martin" in Iraq and the waiver of its obligations under the agreements signed with Baghdad.
An Iraqi news site published a report detailing the operations of Lockheed Martin Corporation, an American aerospace, military equipment and intelligence company in the Iraqi Air Force.
The report, which was published on Al-Ma'loumeh news website, with the headline "When you put your neck in the hands of the American Lockheed company", reads:
Lockheed Martin is a privately held military-owned company controlled by the United States, and its most important products are F-16s, F-35s, and more. The company deals with a range of countries, most of which are wholly or partly controlled by Washington; Such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, etc., while it has been sanctioned by the Chinese government due to suspicious arms deals with Taiwan.
Lockheed Martin is the world's largest contractor for the weapons industry, and more than 7.1 percent of the US Department of Defense's total budget is spent annually on equipment purchases.
In Iraq, a $ 4.3 billion contract was signed with the company in 2011 to supply and maintain F-16 aircraft, according to the report. The company - like other American companies operating in Iraq - did not play the role outlined in the contract, but carried out the US government's plans and demands.
In early 2020, the company fired its staff at Balad Air Base, 40 miles north of Baghdad, under the pretext of the Corona virus, much to the dismay of the Iraqi Air Force, as most of the planes failed to repair and Maintenance decommissioned. The Iraqi Air Force had to build spare parts to be able to use the aircraft, which is against the contract, because it was stipulated not to use foreign spare parts, and if that was done, the aircraft would be out of warranty.
Accordingly, Lockheed Martin put Iraq in a tight spot. On the one hand, he did not play his role in training the Iraqi cadres to maintain the plane, and on the other hand, he took all the spare parts of the plane when he retreated.
The company later quietly returned to Balad without any media statements or insights, until in May 2021 the media reported on security threats against the company, after which Iraq once again witnessed the retreat of the company to The pretext was "security threats."
At the time, Iraqi security sources revealed that the company had 70 employees at the Balad base, 50 of whom would return to the United States and 20 to Erbil.
At the end of this report it is stated; Despite such a record, in late 2020, the Iraqi government re-entered into a $ 19 million contract with Lockheed Martin, only to return and perform the duties set forth in the first contract signed between the two parties.
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