Almost all Gulf States (Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE) devote a larger share of their gross domestic product (GDP) to military spending than the global average.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia are the biggest spenders in the area. One of the reasons why Gulf States import such an amount of defense equipment is that the arms’ production capabilities in the region are rather limited.
Abu Dhabi is trying to tackle this problem by launching several industrial initiatives, such as Tawazun, Abu Dhabi Ship Building and Caracal that will eventually reduce the country’s dependency on imported equipment.
USA is traditionally the main exporter of arm sales in the region. For the period 2008-2012 the Middle East was the second biggest receiver of US weapons accounting for the 27% of the total US exports.
USA has a leading role in the UAE’s armament imports. Apart from the North American country, other important countries that export arms to UAE, for the five last years, are Russia, France, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany.
Aircraft were the predominant area of imports for the period 2008-2012 with a total amount of 2584 US$ m. at constant (1990) prices. The 2nd most important sector is that of missiles with 650 US$ m. at constant (1990) prices whereas other areas such as air defense systems, ships and sensors follow.
Saudi Arabia has mainly imported defense equipment from USA for the period 2008-2012. More specifically USA exported defense equipment totaling 1629 US$ m. at constant (1990) prices for the specific period. UK with 1493 US$ m. at constant (1990) prices is second, whereas Spain, France and Germany follow.
Amongst others, Saudi Arabia procured 12 AH-64D Apache Combat helicopter (photo) from USA. Deliveries finished in 2011. The deal included 11 Saudi AH-64A helicopters rebuilt to AH-64D version. Additionally, USA finished the delivery of 22 S-70/UH-60L helicopters to the Kingdom. The total amount of the procurement reached $286 million dollars.
Source: Epicos; SIPRI
