US Arms Sales hit a record $66 billion – Villains Required to Justify Sales

Top gun: Saudi, India deals push US arms sales to record $66 billion
by Uttara Choudhury – 29 August, 2012 – First-Post World

New York: The Congressional Research Service’s annual survey of global arms sales shows the US to be the world’s top arms merchant. The US sold $66.3 billion of weapons overseas in 2011, cornering nearly 78 percent of all global arms sales, which rose to $85.3 billion in 2011.

Predictably, concerns about chest-thumping Iran fueled arms sales to the Middle East especially to pro-US allies like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Saudis, who have never really got along with Iran and sparred over Islamic leadership in the Persian Gulf, bought 84 advanced F-15 fighters from the US. Territorial disputes between Iran and the United Arab Emirates over three islands in the Gulf have flared recently, with Washington voicing support for the United Arab Emirates’ stance.

But many of the weapons are also being purchased by Asian countries like India and Taiwan which are on a tear to modernize their armies, said the annual report, written for Congress by Richard Grimmett and Paul Kerr. The report noted that India has begun to modernize its old, Soviet-era military equipment and technology and diversify its weapons supply base.

Saudi Arabia was the biggest arms buyer among developing countries, concluding $33.7 billion in weapons deals in 2011, followed by India with purchases of $6.9 billion and the United Arab Emirates with $4.5 billion. Washington also sold around $2 billion worth of antimissile batteries to Taiwan; a deal that stung the Chinese and caused tension during a diplomatic Chinese military visit last July.

“In 2011, the US led in arms transfer agreements worldwide, making agreements valued at $66.3 billion (77.7% of all such agreements), an extraordinary increase from $21.4 billion in 2010. The US worldwide agreements total in 2011 is the largest for a single year in the history of the US arms export program,” noted the report prepared for the US Congress.

While Washington posted “a clear outlier figure” and remained the world’s leading arms supplier, nearly all other major suppliers, except France, saw declines in 2011. Russia, the world’s number two arms dealer got a bloody nose as sales nearly halved to $4.8 billion in 2011. Things were much happier for France which signed arms sales valued at $4.4 billion in 2011, up from $1.8 billion a year earlier. …more