BASMAYA, Iraq—Iraq’s 72nd Brigade was slowly moving through a live-fire exercise recently under the watchful eyes of U.S., Spanish and British coalition trainers when things began to go wrong.
One part of the unit moved forward too quickly across the open field of the military base, putting a team of Iraqi engineers in danger of being hit by friendly fire. A coalition trainer noticed the error, radioed to his counterpart embedded with the formation, and the men were shifted to take the engineers out of harm’s way.
Such battlefield adaptations are difficult to learn and almost impossible to teach with simulations alone, experts say, and that is one of the problems still plaguing the Iraqi army.
American and Spanish trainers use live ammunition in training exercises at Basmaya Base, 40 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, on Jan. 24, 2016. AP Photo/Karim Kadim
