Dipping Sales, But US Firms Remain Razor Focused on the Middle East

Arun Sivasankaran - : Feb 18, 2025 - : 6:40 am

Notwithstanding the fact that the United States' arms exports to the Middle East have decreased over the last few years, the region is still of paramount importance for American defence contractors and the Pentagon. The UAE has been a major...

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The UAE has been a major purchaser of U.S. weapons and that looks set to continue. In October last year, the former Biden administration announced that it had approved a potential sale of the Lockheed Martin-made Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) and ATACMS munitions, and related support, for US$1.2 billion. L3Harris Technologies produces the solid propellant rocket motor for the GMLRS system.

Currently, the U.S. has US$29.3 billion in active government-to-government sales cases with the UAE under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system. Since 2016, the U.S. has also approved the export of over US$11.3 billion in arms, including launch vehicles, ground vehicles, and military electronics, through the direct commercial sales process.

A number of significant defence deals between the UAE and the U.S. are in different stages of completion. In July 2022, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of C-17 Aircraft Sustainment and related equipment for an estimated cost of US$980.4 million. In 2020, the UAE signed an agreement with the U.S. to acquire 50 Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighter jets, 18 MQ-9B SkyGuardian military drones, 4,569 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Vehicles, and a range of air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles.
The massive deal, approved signed during the final stretch of President Trump’s first term, was suspended by the Biden administration.

According to GA-ASI President David Alexander, the MQ-9B deal is back on the table. At the 2023 Dubai Airshow, GA-ASI announced a partnership with Edge Group to integrate the latter company's weapon systems onto the SkyGuardian if the UAE acquires the military drone. The sale of SkyGuardians look set to go through, but UAE seems to have dropped plans to acquire the F-35 fighter jets and reportedly does not intend to resume negotiations with the U.S. on the deal.

Among the other pending arms deals between the U.S. and the UAE are that for CH-47F Chinook cargo helicopters, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles, new and refurbished AH-64E helicopters; Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures systems; MK-82, MK-84, GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs, GBU-58 Paveway II, and KMU-572 JDAM munitions; and AIM-120C8 AMRAAM, AGM-154C JSOW, AGM-154E JSOW-ER, AGM-88E AARGM, Patriot, Javelin, AIM-9X Sidewinder, and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.
For the foreseeable future, the Middle East will remain an attractive market for defence contractors. The region makes up more than 7.5% of the world’s total spending on weapons, and with the demand for advanced weapons systems and defense technologies on the rise, North American and European companies have been keen on focusing on international growth opportunities in the region.

In 2020, L3Harris became the first American firm to create a joint venture with Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) - SAMI L3Harris Technologies. In August 2023, the joint venture inaugurated a multi band radio systems production line at SAMI-AEC facilities in Riyadh. The US company is also in discussions to establish its regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia. in February 2021, SAMI and Lockheed Martin signed a joint venture agreement to strengthen Saudi Arabia's defense and manufacturing capabilities. In November 2021 at the Dubai Airshow, Edge Group signed two major deals with two of the biggest US defence contractors – Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

Edge entity EARTH and Lockheed Martin signed a deal to improve the sustainment and repair of AH-64 Apache helicopters in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As part of the agreement, EARTH will operate repair and sustainment services for the Modernised Targeting and Designator Sensor (M-TADS) systems. M-TADS, known as the ’Eyes of the Apache’, enables targeting and pilotage in day, night and/or adverse weather missions. The MoU signed between Edge and Raytheon Emirates will see the two companies exploring strategic partnership opportunities across several critical defence programs, including the in-country development of hardware and technology that will support projects such as Raytheon’s Early Warning Radar System (EWRS).

Barzan Holdings, the commercial gateway for Qatar’s domestic defense and security industry, is also aggressively seeking partnerships with major international defence firms. Barzan has invested in US-based space startup SpinLaunch, a company that is developing technology to launch satellites into space without rockets, through the use of electricity. The two companies are working together on the R&D project, with the first launch expected in 2028.

According to a 2024 report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), United States' arms exports to the Middle East decreased from 50% to 38% between 2014–18 and 2019–23. While the growth of the domestic defence industries in the region is one of the reasons for the drop in sales, the other major reason is the success that countries such as South Korea and Turkey have had in exporting weapons to the region. About a third of Russia’s arms exports in the years leading to the Ukraine war were to Middle Eastern customers, but the ongoing conflict has affected the country’s ability to export weapons and also made prospective buyers stay away from Russian weapons.

Lockheed-martin / L3harris-technologies / Guided-multiple-launch-rocket-system-gmlrs / Atacms-munition /

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