iraqi M90's: What Era?

As you may have noticed from the other M90 section, the amount of variants of this helmet can be very confusing, and soon, the question arises: "Well, what era is MY M90 from?" This section will answer that question by simplifying all of the M90 variants.

iran iraq war

The only M90 helmet that saw action in the Iran Iraq War was the green plastic M90. This M90 was constructed of green plastic instead of the regular tan and was made around 1988-1989. You can commonly find them painted tan for added camouflage. The majority of green M90's were captured in Desert Storm.

Desert Storm

The most difficult thing to distinguish with M90's are which ones were made before Desert Storm or after. By looking at the characteristics of M90s that are proven to have been captured in either of these conflicts, similarities begin to arise. M90's that were made in Desert Storm or before have:

black sweatband

Some early M90 helmets have a sweatband made of a black plastic or synthetic material. While you do see regular leather sweatbands on M90's captured during Desert Storm, black sweatbands were not made afterwards.

reinforced webbing

This is essentially a ring of sturdier grey fabric that the sweatband clips onto. This feature is only seen on helmets made before 1991.

This specific m90 variant

This M90 variant, explained in the other M90 section, has been proven to have been made in 1991 or before. It has a regular leather sweatband and reinforced webbing that is almost the same color as the regular webbing. This lighter color reinforced webbing is the feature that differentiates this helmet from other M90 variants.

operation iraqi freedom

Here's where the M90 gets crazy. After 1991, sanctions were placed on Iraq, meaning their equipment took a huge drop in quality. This led to a lot of different variants of the M90, and the characteristics below are seen during this time.

coarser/thicker tan webbing

Generally speaking, the webbing fabric in M90's produced after 1991 are slightly thicker and coarser than M90's made before 1991. Most notably, the color of the post 1991 webbing is a pinkish tan instead of the tan or green tinted webbing of pre 1991 M90's.

Pre 1991 webbing: You can see the thin construction and how it is a lighter tan. Others can have a green tint

Post 1991 webbing. You can see that the webbing is slightly thicker and coarser than the other webbing. It may be hard to see in the photo, but the webbing does have a pinkish hue to it.

jihm mark

Although the Iraqi jihm mark is usually attributed to equipment made pre 1991, it appears that the M90's that have a Jihm mark printed in the dome are made post 1991 judging from the style of webbing they have, and because none so far were observed to have been captured during Desert Storm.