USASAC meets request

Responding to a request by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for U.S. assistance in the wake of increased violence in that country, the United States has accelerated delivery of weapons and ammunition to Iraq. 

The Security Assistance Command is playing a major role in supporting that effort by providing equipment and ammunition including 300 Hellfire missiles to Iraq through the Foreign Military Sales program. 

Upon receiving a letter of request in January, USASAC began to work closely with the Aviation and Missile Command, Joint Munitions Command, the vendor and various other organizations in order to implement an emergency case to procure and deliver the requested ammunition and equipment. 

"USASAC had the lead from an overall program management perspective," said Will Collins, country program manager for Iraq. "From the time the letter of request was received, the case was constantly being pushed through the Army Security Assistance Enterprise."

A case for 300 Hellfire missiles completed formal congressional notification Feb. 22. Within a week USASAC received a signed letter of acceptance from the government of Iraq, and on Feb. 27 USASAC began implementing the case.

The effort to deliver the missiles on an expedited time schedule required constant monitoring and support by the various organizations involved in the case, with USASAC providing weekly updates to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. 

The missiles needed to fill the order were provided from U.S. stock and prepared for shipment immediately following congressional notification. USASAC collaborated with several organizations within the Security Assistance Enterprise including, JMC, AMCOM and TACOM. Together they developed a delivery plan, shipped the first 100 missiles, along with a shipment of small arms ammunition the first week of March, and the final shipment of missiles was delivered April 23.

Leveraging collaboration tools such as the Security Assistance Common Operating Picture, or COP, and the Security Cooperation Information Portal, every organization involved with executing the case could track the entire case from beginning to end, and address any issues that may impede the process.

"Synchronizing transportation planning with case development," Collins said in explaining some of the issues faced during the implementation phase of the case. "Normally this is done sequentially, but because of the urgency of the case, we were forced to do it concurrently."

In addition to the missiles, urgent cases for artillery rounds and small arms are also being implemented. 

Using this aggressive approach, USASAC was able to significantly reduce the case execution time in order to reduce the normal FMS time lines to support operations in Iraq.

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