M80 Iraqi helmet

[Redstalker]

This is the first of my 4 Iraqi helmets. This model is basically a thicker version of the U.S. M73 helmet liner for the M1 (5mm thick of seven layers of cloth and resin on high pressure mould). It has also the same type of removable suspension system and chin straps as the M1. Originally this model was made in Korea and was destined for use by the Israeli army but never come to be. The Iraqi army had a mix of communist made helmets (Polish, Russian etc) and this design was meant to be a low cost standardisation of Iraqi army helmets. This version was also used by other Middle Eastern armies such as Egypt and Syria. The helmet I have has 3 layers of paint (dark green with a sand texture, a yellow mustard colour followed by a lighter yellow sand colour) which shows it has seen a lot of use. In the crown there is a mould number 24 but inverted. Thanks for looking guys

[AlexKG200]

Ian, Thank you for posting your M80 Iraqi helmet.

Cheers
Alex

[battle gear]

many other countries also used the Model 80 helmet as used by Iraq, this photo shows a soldier in Lebanon back in 1983 wearing the same type of helmet, and the other soldier has a French M51 steel helmet.

[James C]

A great example ian at first i thought it was an iraqi made copy of the m80, my example bears the HHD mark on the front rim so one to look out for if you can ,in profile it is very similar but on closer inspection you can see the liner mounts fit lower down on the shell ,as for these helmets in general aside from the additional layers of paint ive also noticed a trend of the liner mount heads being painted black ,every example i own bears the same hallmarks and i can work out why it was done whether this was applied at factory finish level before the iraqi army applied there top coats im really not sure ,it would be great to hear your thought's on this minor detail and if your interested and not already looked here is a link to my modest iraqi collection my iraqi helmet collection

[Opex]

Very nice used condition M-80, these are becoming highly collectable, when I first added one to my collection they appeared to be overlooked, so it's great to see a lot more interest in these models.

Thanks for showing your excellent example.