Col. Richard Simcock (USMC), Commander of Regimental Combat Team-6, spoke with bloggers this morning to disucss operations in eastern al Anbar–specifically operation Alljah in the city of Fallujah–as well as the implementation of new technologies such as the MRAP. Simcock was optimistic about the progress being made in Fallujah, his area of operations. He said that Iraqi Army recruitment among the local Sunni population had increased dramatically, and that this represented a “huge step forward in reintegrating” that group into the Iraqi society. He added he doesn’t “see a lot of problems in the Army between Sunni and Shia.” He also said that his men rarely had use for “heavy assets” like artillery, tanks, etc. And as far as airpower, Simcock said that his command mainly used air assets for reconnaissance to stymie attacks and reduce Coaltion casualties. While he was wary of making the connection between the use of heavy assets and military progress, he implied that other metrics had demonstrated the success of current operation in the Fallujah region. He added that there’s nothing in his AO that a Marine rifle squadron can’t handle on its own. When asked what, precisely, Simcock and his Marines need to do their job more effectively, he said “we need more engineers and route clearance.” Simcock says they have engineers, but they are all out “either building something or tearing something down.” And his emphasis on route clearance was a nice segue into discussion of MRAP. Simcock said that his men had recently taken delivery of 25 additional MRAP vehicles, which offer increased protection against IEDs, and that he’d been promised as many as 400–though the inability of manufacturers to keep pace with demand makes it unlikely he’ll get those vehicles in the near future. Still, he said he’d “take whatever I can get.” David Axe asked Simcock if he’d had trouble maintaining the vehicles–MRAP logistics are problematic owing to the numerous makes and models entering service–but Simcock said his mechanics had been trained on MRAPs before heading to Iraq and they were working out the glitches with time. Others on the call: Blackfive, Danger Room and QandO.
