November 24, 2006. Copyright, 2006, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Boom years for U.S. arms industry

LONDON, November 24, Graphic News: Sales of weapons by United States military contractors to foreign governments were valued at $12.8 billion last year and are projected to hit a near record-setting $21 billion in 2006.

A number of factors -- including fears of nuclear-armed ÒrogueÓ states and global terrorism -- are driving the surge in sales. Middle Eastern countries flush with oil revenues have become big buyers, and the Bush administrationÕs use of arms sales as a way to reward allies has led to big orders from countries like India, Pakistan and Indonesia.

Arms transfer agreements worldwide in 2005 were valued at almost $44.2 billion -- the highest total during the past eight years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The United States supplied weapons worth $8.1 billion to developing countries in 2005 -- 48.5 percent of its total global sales -- citing them as critical to the war on terrorism or other foreign policy goals. One such example was the recent decision to sell F-16 fighter jets worth $5 billion to Pakistan -- a nation which had been barred from buying most American weapons because of its nuclear programme.

A similar ban on India was also lifted, spurring arms control specialists to warn that many of the weapons sales risk fuelling conflicts rather than aiding long-term U.S. interests.

The Pakistan F-16 agreement underscores this trend, according to Wade Bouse , research director at the Arms Control Association.

ÒF-16s with advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles are not for fighting al-Qaeda,Ó Bouse said, Òthey are for fighting India.Ó

And India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan, is considering a U.S. offer to sell the country F-16s. ÒWe are creating our own market by selling to both sides of regional conflicts,Ó Bouse said.

Although Moscow and Beijing have both inked major deals to sell hardware to such potential trouble spots as Iran and North Korea, and Britain and France have also concluded large orders with developing countries, it is the U.S. that by far remains the one-stop shop for high-tech arms to areas where conflict remains highest. 

ÒWe are at a point in history where many of these sales are not essential for the self-defence of these countries and the arms being sold continue to fuel conflicts and tensions in unstable areas,Ó said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the nonpartisan Arms Control Association in Washington. ÒIt doesn't make much sense over the long term.Ó

A study last year by the progressive World Policy Institute found that the U.S. transferred weaponry to 18 of the 25 countries involved in ongoing wars.

Since 9/11, bans on arms sales have also been lifted on Tajikistan, Serbia and Montenegro, Armenia and Azerbaijan as these countries have been identified by the State Department as critical allies in the war on terror. 

In the oil-rich gulf region, Saudi Arabia said in July that it planned to spend $5.8 billion on American weapons to modernize its National Guard and will also put in more than $3 billion in orders for Black Hawk helicopters, Abrams and Bradley armoured vehicles, new radio systems and other weapons.

Bahrain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have also filed plans to buy Black Hawk helicopters valued at $1 billion. Oman plans to buy a $48 million anti-tank missile system. The Emirates plan to buy rocket artillery equipment and military trucks for $752 million and Bahrain will purchase Javelin missiles for $42 million.

Bahrain alone has accounted for $1 billion in foreign military sales in the five years since 9/11.

In October, the U.S. was the only country to vote against a proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, which is aimed at curbing arms transfers to major human-rights abusers and areas of conflict.

ÒThe U.S. would be significantly affected if there was an arms treaty that took into account human rights abuses and conflict areas,Ó said William Hartung , director of the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute in New York. ÒThe U.S. government still wants to be able to do covert and semi-covert arms transfers. And a certain amount of it is simply keeping factories running in certain congressional districts.Ó
/ENDS