Alwaght- Saudi Arabia surpassed India to become the world's top importer of defense equipment in 2014, according to IHS, as global defense trade rose for the sixth straight year to $64.4 billion, up from $56.8 billion.
"Defense trade rose by a landmark 13.4 percent over the past year," said Ben Moores, senior defense analyst at IHS Aerospace, Defense & Security. "This record figure has been driven by unparalleled demand from the emerging economies for military aircraft and an escalation of regional tensions in the Middle East and Asia Pacific."
Saudi Arabian imports surged 54 percent on year in 2014, and are forecast to rise by 52 percent to $9.8 billion this year, based on planned deliveries, IHS said.
This means that one out of every seven dollars spent on defense imports in 2015 will be spent by Saudi Arabia.
So why is Saudi Arabia buying all these weapons? For example why is Saudi Arabia buying 15,000 US anti-tank missiles for a war it will never fight?
No one is expecting a tank invasion of Saudi Arabia anytime soon, but the kingdom just put in a huge order for U.S.-made anti-tank missiles that has Saudi-watchers scratching their heads and wondering whether the deal is related to Riyadh’s support for the anti-Syrian insurgents.
The proposed weapons deal, which the Pentagon notified Congress of in early December, would provide Riyadh with more than 15,000 Raytheon anti-tank missiles at a cost of over $1 billion. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance report, Saudi Arabia’s total stockpile last year amounted to slightly more than 4,000 anti-tank missiles. In the past decade, the Pentagon has notified Congress of only one other sale of anti-tank missiles to Saudi Arabia — a 2009 deal that shipped roughly 5,000 missiles to the kingdom.
"It’s a very large number of missiles, including the most advanced version of the TOWs [tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles]," said Jeffrey White, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former intelligence analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency. The problem for him is: What’s the threat?
For us in West Asia the answer is simple. A military engagement with Iran is not seen in the horizon, and even if it occurs, it will not be a tank invasion by Iran. Saudi Arabia has fought a series of deadly battles with Ansarullah revolutionaries in northern Yemen over the years, but Ansarullah have no more than a handful of military vehicles. Also Iraq and Syria are far too consumed by their internal demons “ISIS”, and are unexpected to engage in such foreign adventurism.
But one Saudi ally could desperately use anti-tank weapons — the anti-Syrian insurgents. In the past, Riyadh has been happy to oblige: It previously purchased anti-tank weapons from Croatia and funneled them to anti-Assad fighters, and it is now training and arming anti-Syrian insurgents in Jordan. Charles Lister, a London-based terrorism and insurgency analyst, said that insurgents have also received as many as 100 Chinese HJ-8 anti-tank missiles from across the border with Jordan — and indeed, many videos show anti-Syrian insurgents using this weapon against Syrian army tanks.
But while the latest American anti-tank weapons might not be showing up in Aleppo anytime soon, that doesn’t mean the deal is totally disconnected from Saudi efforts to arm the anti-Syrian insurgents. What may be happening, analysts say, is that the Saudis are sending their older stockpiles of anti-tank weapons bought from elsewhere to Syria and are purchasing U.S. missiles to replenish their own stockpiles. "I would speculate that with an order of this size, the Saudis were flushing their current stocks in the direction of the opposition and replacing them with new munitions," said Charles Freeman, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Regardless of how this purchase of anti-tank missiles relates to Syria, it’s undoubtedly part of a larger Saudi arms buildup that has been going on for nearly a decade. From 2004 to 2011, according to a 2012 report by the Congressional Research Service, Riyadh signed $75.7 billion worth of arms transfer agreements — by far the most of any developing nation. The US was the major benefactor of this Saudi largesse, as the deals bumped up US arms sales to a record $66 billion in 2011 alone.
How the Saudis plan to use many of these weapons is a mystery. And it’s not just the anti-tank missiles whose purpose remains unclear. Riyadh recently bought advanced fighter jets from the US for a whopping $30 billion — but the Saudis’ lack of pilots and ability to maintain them means that it’s an open question how long they can keep them airborne, said William Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy.
One wonders why the Saudis need the
high-end, major-theater-war gear. Is it prestige? Or something fun for the
princes and their buddies to fly in?
Well analysts say Saudi Arabia
is buying all these weapons due to national and regional concerns. Concerning
the inside, Saudi Arabia needs to protect its royal family from any attack from
its angry oppressed people, and since the Saudi army is inefficient and weak,
modern weapons may cover up the experience shortage as they assume. At the
regional level the hegemonic continuity over the Arabian Peninsula and the
Persian Gulf Cooperation Council and the support for terrorist groups are the
main reasons for the trend towards Saudi arms purchases.
Beside all those reasons, it also seems purchasing the weapons, rather than any intent to use them, may be the point for the Saudis. At a time when they are at odds with Washington over the Obama administration’s diplomacy with Iran and non-intervention in Syria, the monarchy’s deep pockets can at least make sure their ties to the Pentagon remain as strong as ever.
There was a [Washington] lobbyist who used to say, “When you buy US weapons, you’re not just buying the weapon — you’re buying a relationship with the US". This may also be the concept.
