Kuwait Military Organization was formed for the aim of bringing the military into correspondence with the contemporary external and internal conditions. It had some degree of flexibility in the way it was structured. Manpower shortages made it hard to man all positions and in theory commanding positions only go to the best officers.
For fifty years in Kuwait Military Organization, Commanders managed to run their Army without a written Doctrine, strategy or a job description. Before the Iraqi Invasion, Kuwait Army was building it self to be larger, and by expanding the manpower and arms. After the Liberation the DRG recommended the reduction of the organization to create a small and effective Army.
There is a need for improvement of organization and raising the qualitative level of the administration of the military and the optimization of the system of the organs of the Arms Forces Administration, structure, composition and number of military organization. The balanced development of its components; reducing to the minimum of the number of branches and departments, the improvement of strategic planning, bringing volume and content of the tasks of military organization into correspondence with the real needs of defense of Kuwait. Kuwait’s Army Organization showed that some officers were being over-worked while others had little to do.
There is a need for improvement of the systems of combat and mobilization readiness, mobilization preparation and Conscription system in general, and increase in the effectiveness of the system of operational and combat training, and also strengthening organization, and establishing law and military discipline. The improvement of the systems of staffing, preparation of personnel, of military education and of military science; the optimization of technical support with the passage to the united system of the orders of armament and military equipment; Kuwait’s Army is in need of improvement and standardized system of the logistics
Like all democratic systems, measures should be taken to affirm the supremacy of civilian control over military, since independence in 1961 Kuwait’s government undertook stronger legal measures to bring the Armed Forces under the political control of the Prime Minister.
Kuwait Military Organizations suffer from dysfunctional organizational biases. Kuwait Army Organization is seen as primarily bureaucratic actors focused on domestic battles for resources and autonomy from civilian control.
Peninsula Shield Force faces challenges in material readiness, combat system and combat support interoperability. Peninsula Shield could change the very nature of the Kuwait Army Organization because all the military organization of GCC should be designed around this defensive alliance.
Like every other aspect of the life of Kuwait, the Armed Forces were dependent on expatriates and British then American or French advisers.
In 1970 we saw one form of military cooperation between the Gulf States before establishing the GCC, when Kuwait offered Stationing of Kuwait Air Force squadron to replace the withdrawing British Forces to protect the security and national safety of Bahrain during the declaration of Bahrain’s Independence.
Among all other Arabian Gulf states, Kuwait is the only countries with a Conscription system. To avoid government and Army bureaucracies, that system requires a total change in its concept and practice.
Instead of scattered orders and regulations, a military law is a necessity, the Parliament and the Army’s high level Commanders were the main obstacles for the military law to see the light; and military men are the victims of this.
It is true that the American, British and other friendly countries Intelligence systems failed to detect evidence of the Iraqi’s real intensions in August1990, but the blame lay heavily on Kuwait Army Intelligence System that failed to stay on full alert after the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Kuwait’s Intelligence efforts were a total failure on 2 August 1990. Military Intelligence Reform is a must.
Brilliant Officers shaped the history of their units in Kuwait’s Army. During the sixties the 3rd Branch was the most active unit in the Army, because Sheikh Saleh Al Subah was a professional, well trained and well respected Officer.
By all standards, sending Kuwaiti forces to both Syria and Egypt in 1973’s war was a great achievement in the fields of logistics and operation, but leaving the country with one third of its military strength only was something to be reconsidered.
Like all Arabian Gulf States, Kuwait’s oil importers were its weapons exporters, and the direction of its training plans during the sixties, seventies and early eighties.
Large nations have a larger pool of troops to select commandos from and thus are able to maintain quality in their commandos. But in many smaller nations, the local commandos are, at best, a small team with fancy equipment than capability. Kuwait Commandos were not an exception. But From Qasim crisis to the early hours of the Iraqi invasion in 1990, the Commando Unit remained Kuwait’s elite force, and Sheikh Mubarak, Chief of Staff had some plans to make all Kuwaiti Army units on the level of the Commandos.
Because of the high standard of medical treatment in Kuwait in general, the need for a Military Medical Services was slow but the advance of that unit was strong and firm. Now the Military Hospital has become the place to treat Kuwait’s high dignitaries including the Ameer, himself.
A British made Kuwait Air Force became the first line of defense and a deterrent force against the Iraqi threats during the last two decades of the 20th century. The British assessment for Kuwait Air Force in the late sixties stated that Kuwait Air Force would probably do well against most other forces it might meet except the Israeli Air Force.
The Kuwaiti idea involving the possible stationing of an Air Force squadron to counter the Iranian threats to Bahrain before their independence 1971, show many things that include the level of strategic thinking that Kuwaiti Commanders reached in their aim of finding a solution to save their aircrafts in case of an Iraqi attack, and the use of the extra training facilities at Muharraq. The facilities would provide the Kuwait Air Force with the Second Airfield Facility which they urgently need but which is likely to be some years away if built from scratch in Kuwait, and the air station itself could perhaps be manned with British technicians, whom would be available for employment as civilians under contract in consequence.
The Iraq-Iran War could be seen as the best training time that Kuwait Armed Forces ever had before the invasion, the size and the armament made the difference in favor of Iraq on the 2nd of August 1990.
