UAE Signs More Military Deals Amid Yemen Outcry

Date: 19 February 2019 - 21:54

News ID: ۶۳۳۴۶

ABU DHABI (Dispatches) -- The United Arab Emirates' armed forces signed 514.8 million dirham ($140.17 million) military contracts with international firms on Tuesday at the IDEX military exhibition, spokesman Brig. Gen. Muhammed al-Hassani said.
The UAE also signed 4.3 billion dirham contracts with local firms, another spokesman said.
It came after the tiny Persian Gulf state announced about $1.35 billion in military deals on the opening day of the exhibition in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
American companies took the greatest share of foreign sales, at about $490 million. Led by Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Hesco, the deals will provide missiles, new radar systems capabilities and defensive shelters for the UAE military, respectively. Others notching sales to the country included France's Thales, Australian firm EOS Defense and Germany's Rheinmetall Electronics.
The purchases come at a time when military spending is soaring in the Middle East. A report from IHS Jane's published Friday revealed an increase in arms expenditures in the Persian Gulf from $82.3 billion in 2013 to $103 billion in 2019. And it's showing no signs of stopping — IHS forecast spending will hit $110.8 billion in 2023.
While the drop in oil prices from 2014 to 2016 delayed many procurement projects, "defense was generally protected from the worst of the spending cuts due to regional security concerns and budgets are now growing again," Charles Forrester, senior defense industry analyst IHS Jane's, wrote in the report.
The heavy spending is no surprise given the ramp-up in political tensions over the last few years. The Saudi-led blockade against Qatar has spiked arms procurement, as the latter's resulting re-armament made it the world's eighth-largest weapons importer in 2018, IHS said.
The Middle East is the world's top arms-importing region, according to the analytics firm, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the global military market. American companies make up 50 percent of the exports that go there.
Ian Bremmer, founder of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, says it's nothing short of a regional arms race.
"I think there is an arms race happening in the Middle East," Bremmer told CNBC at the Munich Security Conference.
With a slowdown in growth forecast for the entire Middle East and North Africa region, thanks in part to lower oil prices, that spending will come under pressure.
"But still, the defense contractors should be happy in this environment, that's true all over the world," Bremmer said. "And, in an environment where there are so many big challenges, it's a little sad to see just how many countries are working to ramp up their defense spend."
The UAE is a top regional ally to the U.S. More recently, it has come under increased criticism for its role in Yemen's war, where a Saudi and UAE-led aggression has been described by the UN as being responsible for most of the at least 10,000 civilian deaths in the country since 2015.