Complex Politics, Shortages Hinder Kurdish Air Defenses in Iraq

Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East Security program at the Center for New American Security, told Amwaj.media that the waiver provision is a decisive aspect of the legislation. It effectively allows the US government to skirt the requirement.

“These systems are in high demand, and there simply isn’t an inventory of air defense systems sitting on a shelf somewhere the US could be using to provide blanket coverage of [Iraqi Kurdistan],” Lord said, referring to deployments in Eastern Europe, East Asia, and other parts of the Middle East. The ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine have piled on demand.

“The costs of these air defense systems exceed the entire CTEF budget,” Lord added, referring to the almost 400M USD authorized in the 2024 NDAA for operations against the Islamic State group (IS). Requests for comment from the office of Representative Bacon were not returned.

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