Page 5 - ADT FEBRUARY - MARCH 2021 Online Magazine

Self other major producers like Russia, France, [ ANALYSIS ]

and China are also key players in the region,
and their transfers of some sophisticated but
smaller volume and value items, such as armed
unmanned aerial vehicles and air defence sys-
Reliance tems, may have outsized effects on regional
security.

Israel and Egypt are the largest recipients of
US military aid. But Iraq and Jordan have also
boosted their defence procurement activities
is the New with US Foreign Military Financing (FMF) fund-
ing. And there are no signs that the United
States plans to rethink its longstanding sup-
port to these countries. This funding is seen
in Washington as key to sustaining an uneasy
peace between Israel and its neighbours.
Mantra Deals Galore

In the last year of the Trump administration,
Washington agreed to sell 50 F-35 stealth
fighter jets to Abu Dhabi. The proposed deal
was made possible after the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) and Israel announced on
August 13, 2020 that they would normalise
relations, and particularly since they signed the
Abraham Accords. Also, after the U.S. assured
to maintain Israel’s technological superiority in
arms over its neighbours.

The State Department had cleared an FMS
package of about US$23 billion including 50
F-35As for US$10.4 billion, 18 General Atomics
Aeronautical Systems-built MQ-9B Reaper
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) worth about
US$3 billion and munitions worth US$10 billion.
The UAE was also promised 20,000 Advanced
Precision Kill Weapon Systems that can be fired
from Emirati helicopters and fighter jets. The
US$900 million worth deal included up to 20
US Government and up to 30 contractor rep-
resentatives to travel to UAE. The Emiratis also
agreed to pay US$80 million for 40 surveillance
drones.

The UAE also planned to buy 321 Javelin Guided
Missiles for US$102 million, which are anti-tank
GOVERNMENTS IN THE GULF ARE SEEKING weapons. Additionally, the UAE also agreed
TO SIGNIFICANTLY EXPAND THEIR DOMESTIC to pay US$100 million for the US military to
INDUSTRIAL BASE FOR DEFENCE HARDWARE train the Emirati Presidential Guard. Thirty-four
US Marines were proposed to be sent in for
that project. The United States had facilitated
Jay Menon dozens of weapons deals with Saudi Arabia
in recent decades, but these agreements had
earned scrutiny recently because of the coun-
The Middle East has long been a key driver of the global trade in try’s human rights record.
weapons, to a disproportionate degree relative to its population.
The United States is the single greatest arms supplier to the Middle In one of the largest publicly announced deals
East by volume and value, and has been for decades. However, with Saudi Arabia, the Trump administration had

ASIAN DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY February/March 2021 | 5