Other Names: Badr Dies Factory; Moulds Plant, Badr State Establishment
Location: 25km SW of Baghdad
Subordinate to: Military Industrialization Corporation
Primary Function: Tool, dies, and moulds production facility for military and civilian use

Description:
The facility was established in the mid-1980s to produce toolings and dies for the military industry. Prior to the Gulf War, Badr was involved—along with the State Enterprise for Heavy Equipment Engineering—with production of vacuum housings, molecular pumps, the ball/pivot, and other small parts for the centrifuge program. Iraq consistently denied any facility involvement in the pre-war missile program.

Badr comprised some 30 buildings and employed a staff of approximately 1,500; however, only a small number were involved in the post-war missile program (about 100 plus a few engineers). In that capacity, Badr produced mandrels for the Al-Samoud liquid-propellant engine, and dies for turbine blade production. A variety of other dies and piece parts were produced for both the liquid and solid missile programs. Other military production included dies and moulds for mines and artillery barrels. Civilian work centered on manufacture of carbide tips for machine tools.

Inspectors were particularly interested in Badr because it housed a number of vacuum furnaces capable of being used in the brazing process for combustion chambers. Badr was also active in terms of post-war, cover procurement including the successful purchase of a plasma coating machine from Belarus. The IAEA was particularly concerned with this machine's capabilities, although Iraq explained that the machine was solely intended for the titanium coating of dies and drills.

Badr apparently procured considerable new, capable equipment following the departure of inspectors at the end of 1998, as UNMOVIC "tagged" these new machines (for monitoring purposes) when they re-visited the site in 2002 and early 2003.

Key Sources: UN Inspection Data; CNS UNMOVIC Inspection Database, <http://cns.miis.edu/Iraq-Inspections>.

	Updated October 2003