Governmental Report to Congress Highlights U.S. Arms Exports: U.S. Weapons Sales Fuel Conflicts and Arms Races Worldwide
Arms Sales Monitoring Project, Federation of American Scientists
July 13, 1999
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Tamar Gabelnick, Director, Arms Sales Monitoring Project
Phone: (202) 675-1018
A recent report to Congress from the Defense and State Departments details more than $40 billion worth of U.S. arms shipments and export licenses to 165 countries. The U.S. has exported similarly large amounts of weapons throughout the 1990s, dominating the post-Cold War global arms market.
The Pentagon's portion of the fiscal year 1998 "Section 655" report lists $13.9 billion worth of arms and training delivered through the government-negotiated Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. The following top ten recipients represent nearly 80% of that total:
(Dollars in thousands):
1. Saudi Arabia-4,307,585
2. Israel-1,617,819
3. Taiwan-1,489,671
4. Korea-955,848
5. Egypt-611,796
6. Turkey-541,204
7. Japan-419,892
8. Greece-414,397
9. Netherlands-346,729
10. Australia-343,623
A separate section of the FY 98 Section 655 report lists $26.4 billion worth of State Department approved manufacturing agreements and weapons export licenses negotiated directly between U.S. defense firms and foreign entities-both governments and private companies. Export licenses for Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) are valid for four years, and not all licenses will be acted upon. Because it is difficult to obtain delivery data on DCS, this category of sales is often left out of reports on U.S. arms exports, skewing the picture of global arms sales and the U.S. portion of the trade.
Under U.S. arms export policy guidelines, U.S. military equipment may not be sold to countries where they might exacerbate regional arms races or contribute to human rights abuses. Yet the list of top ten recipients of FMS sales tells a different story. The already highly militarized Middle East region absorbed the most U.S. arms in 1998, accounting for just over half of all FMS deliveries. Long-time rivals Greece and Turkey are also involved in a costly arms race, with the U.S. government acting as a willing partner.
The U.S. government also exported or authorized licenses for arms sales to several states involved in internal conflicts and with poor human rights records: $176 million of arms exports were sent or authorized for export to Colombia in FY 98, $185 million for Mexico, and over $2.1 billion for Turkey, where the U.S. State Dept. has documented the military's use of U.S.-origin arms against civilian populations in its war against the Kurdish rebels. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of military equipment and training were also delivered to Ethiopia and Eritrea while a bloody war continues between them, and small amounts of military equipment were also provided to Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone, involved in violent internal conflicts.
"These arms sales lend both logistical and political support to the pursuit of military, rather than negotiated, solutions to conflicts," noted Tamar Gabelnick, Director of the Federation of American Scientists' Arms Sales Monitoring Project. "Foreign militaries interpret the U.S. government's decisions to export arms as a signal of tacit approval for their military policies."
The commercial sales portion of the Section 655 also highlights the U.S. contribution to the proliferation of "small arms"-the weapons credited with most of the casualties in today's internal conflicts. In FY 98, the State Department authorized the export of approximately $478 million worth of small arms, light weapons, ammunition, and their components (spare parts or manufacturing equipment), up slightly from fiscal year 1997. Included in this figure are over 440,000 pistols, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and machine guns, as well as over 650 million ammunition cartridges.
Among the top recipients of small arms licenses were Taiwan and Venezuela, which received $46.5 million and $39 million worth of small arms licenses, respectively. Major small arms recipients also included countries with internal conflicts, such as Israel and Indonesia. Brazil and South Africa-two states plagued with high gun-related murder rates-also topped the list of small arms license recipients.

http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/usdefense/FAS071399.html

Going Backwards
Global Arms Sales Rise Again, and the U.S. Leads the Pack
by Thom Shanker
 
WASHINGTON — International arms sales grew 8 percent last year, to nearly $36.9 billion, with the United States further consolidating its stature as the supplier of choice, especially in developing countries, according to a new Congressional report. Its findings will doubtless offer more material for human rights and arms control organizations that criticize the American government — Democratic and Republican administrations — for preaching peaceful relations abroad while allowing American contractors to continue arming the world. American manufacturers signed contracts for just under $18.6 billion, or about half of all weapons sold on the world market during 2000, with 68 percent of the American weapons bought by developing countries.
Russia followed, with $7.7 billion in sales, then France with $4.1 billion, Germany with $1.1 billion, Britain with $600 million, China with $400 million and Italy with $100 million.
The statistics are contained in a study, "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1993- 2000," published by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the Library of Congress. The report, updated each year, is one of the most authoritative resources on weapons sales available to the public.
The author, Richard F. Grimmett, notes in an introduction that developing nations remain the largest market for weapons, and a growing one.
"Despite global changes since the cold war's end, the developing world continues to be the primary focus of foreign arms sales activity by conventional weapons suppliers," wrote Mr. Grimmett, a specialist in national defense at the research service.
Worldwide arms sales rose in 2000 for the third year in a row. The previous year, international weapons sales were nearly $34 billion, when measured in constant year 2000 dollars. The value of sales agreements with developing nations was $25.4 billion in 2000, the highest in constant dollars since 1994.
The two leaders in arms sales, the United States and Russia, both increased their new contracts in 2000.
The report is studiously nonpartisan. But its findings will doubtless offer more material for human rights and arms control organizations that criticize the American government — Democratic and Republican administrations — for preaching peaceful relations abroad while allowing American contractors to continue arming the world.
Certain details also underscore national security challenges for the new Bush administration.
Also See:
Global Accord on Small Arms Trade Sabotaged by US
Independent/UK 7/23/01
The study documents a small but tangible supplier-buyer relationship between Russia and Iran during a time when President Bush is pressing Moscow to end the Antiballistic Missile Treaty. One inducement that administration officials said they might put on the table is to buy Russian interceptors for a missile shield; another would be to offer joint development for high-technology sensors, communications systems or "kill vehicles" of an eventual missile system.
At the same time, however, administration officials express concerns that a Russia-Iran arms relationship could compromise American technological secrets shared with Russia, in addition to destabilizing the region.
There are two ways to track the flow of arms: by sales contracts and by deliveries.
The study found that between 1997 and 2000, Russia agreed to sell Iran $300 million in weapons, measured in constant 2000 dollars. During that same period, Russia delivered to Iran $800 million in arms.
"In late 2000, Russia served public notice that it again intended to pursue major arms sales with Iran, despite objections from the United States," the report states.
The administration's arguments for a missile shield beyond the limits of the ABM Treaty cite Iraq and North Korea as the major threats, and as the report notes, "Iraq was once a major purchaser of advanced weaponry from Russia," but not since the Persian Gulf war in 1991.
"Russia would clearly pursue new major weapons deals with Iraq, if current U.N. sanctions on Iraq that ban Iraqi arms purchases are lifted," the report states.
Russia's principal clients for weapons are India and China. But Moscow enters into joint production deals with those nations, which raises the possibility that eventually they will make the arms domestically, curtailing purchases despite Russia's desire to earn hard currency.
The report also cautions on China's role in the arms market, stating, "With a need for hard currency, and some military products (especially missiles) that some developing countries would like to acquire, China can present an important obstacle to efforts to stem proliferation of advanced missile systems to some areas of the developing world where political and military tensions are significant."
After reaching a peak of $2.7 billion in weapons sales in 1999, China dropped to $400 million last year. Pakistan remained a major buyer.
The increase in sales by the United States, from $12.9 billion in 1999 to nearly $18.6 billion, was powered by a $6.4 billion sale of 80 F-16 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates.
The Emirates, by virtue of its blockbuster purchase of jets from the United States, led the developing world in signing weapons contracts in 2000, with $7.4 billion. India, which signed $4.8 billion in sales deals, ranked second, followed by South Korea, which signed $2.3 billion in contracts.

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0820-02.htm

Published on Thursday, August 30, 2001 by Reuters
Global Weapons Purchases on the Rise - UN
by Michael Christie
 
SYDNEY - A decade long slump in military spending that followed the end of the Cold War has been reversed and global weapons purchases are rising again, the United Nations said on Thursday.
U.S. opposition has sunk moves to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention, the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty is on thin ice and prospects for the entry into force any day soon of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) are bleak.
``Whether one looks at the big weapons or the little ones, the facts are alarming,'' Jayantha Dhanapala, U.N. Under-Secretary General for disarmament, said in a speech in Sydney. The UN Department for Disarmament Affairs is headed by Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka. Mr. Dhanapala, a career diplomat in the Foreign ministry of Sri Lanka, held several positions with bodies concerned with disarmament prior to his appointment. ( Biography of Jayantha Dhanapala )
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global military spending last year reached $800 billion, or $130 for every person in the world.
Dhanapala said that represented a ``major increase'' on 1999.
The biggest increases in spending were by developing nations -- the ones which can least afford it -- and ``Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia are two major sub regions of concern,'' he said.
To put things in perspective, he told a seminar at Sydney's Macquarie University that the Washington-based Brookings Institution think-tank had calculated that total U.S. spending on nuclear weapons amounted to some $5.8 trillion.
If you stacked those dollars, the pile would reach to the moon and almost all the way back to the Earth.
DISAGREEMENT RUBS OUT HARMONY
But it's not just the growing stock of military hardware that has the U.N. disarmament chief concerned.
Dhanapala told Reuters earlier on Thursday that a palpable sense of a ``certain harmony, a certain unity'' that existed among U.N. Security Council members just after the end of the Cold War, when everyone agreed over Iraq for instance, had ''worn thin.''
``We are beginning to see disagreements,'' he said.
In most of the points he makes, a common thread is the United States of President Bush.
Bush says he will abandon the ABM treaty, regarded as the cornerstone of nuclear stability for three decades and affirmed as such by the prior Bill Clinton administration, so Washington can pursue plans to develop a missile shield.
Clinton was on board during a 6- year international attempt to give more teeth to the Biological Weapons Convention. The Bush administration has jumped ship.
And the new U.S. President has indicated he is unlikely to resubmit the CTBT to the U.S. Senate for ratification after the upper house voted it down.
In weapons sales, Dhanapala said the United States alone was responsible for half of last year's arms trades.
Yet he said people should not become disheartened.
``In disarmament the glass is always either half full or half empty depending on how you look at it. I think we must not be totally pessimistic,'' Dhanapala said in the Reuters interview.
``It is true that we are facing a number of challenges particularly to multilateral disarmament. But I do know that the United States upholds the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, it upholds several other treaties, it would want to continue in several of our disarmament fora.''
Dhanapala said ``a la carte multilateralism'' was an in-word in Washington and the Bush administration was likely to pick and chose which multilateral agreements it would like to adhere to.
``But it will soon be realized that that is a game that other countries can also play and therefore it is not in the global interest for countries to limit their engagement,'' he said.

Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0830-04.htm

News, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info
New Arms Sales to India Make Israel a Top Global Weapons Supplier
 Tim Kennedy • Special to Arab News
 
Arab News
WASHINGTON, 15 June 2003 — The export of Israeli weapons and military services to India has made this tiny Mideast country one of the world’s top arms suppliers. In 2002 transfers of Israeli defense technology and know-how totaled $4.18 billion, ranking it fifth only to the United States, the European Union, Russia, and Japan in weapons exports. The previous year, Israel’s arms exports totaled just $2.5 billion.
India has become one of Israel’s biggest customers in recent years, and I will likely become the top customer now that the United States has decided to drop its objection to $1 billion sale of the Israeli “Phalcon” airborne early-warning system to New Delhi.
The Phalcon is a close copy of the US E-3 “Sentry,” an airborne warning and control system (AWACS) that provides all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications to battle commanders. The Israeli version of AWACS uses sophisticated Israeli radar carried aboard a Russian-made cargo plane.
Three years ago, Washington instructed Israel to rescind a similar Phalcon deal to China, claiming the state-of-the-art system might be re-exported by Beijing to nations unfriendly to the United States. Many arms control officials believe this possibility still exists.
According to a recent article in the Jerusalem Post, Israel has been hired by India to train four battalions of nearly 3,000 Indian soldiers for specialized anti-insurgency strikes. Experts quoted in the newspaper say New Delhi’s recent reliance on Israel for combat soldier expertise is due to its failure to adequately repulse Pakistani border incursions and because of a deadly suicide attack last year by terrorist infiltrators on the Indian Parliament.
The Israeli newspaper notes that in conjunction with the deal for counterinsurgency training services, India has signed a $30 million contract with Israel Military Industries (IMI) for 3,400 Tavor assault rifles and 200 Galil sniper rifles, as well as night vision and laser range finding and targeting equipment.
“The purchase seems to demonstrate a broadening of the defense trade relationship beyond Indian purchase of Israeli high-tech electronic systems. For decades, New Delhi has bought most of its air force and army hardware from Russia,” says a recent report by the Tel Aviv-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a conservative defense think tank whose board of directors includes many of President George W. Bush’s top national security advisors.
According to JINSA, India has had to significantly boost its defense budget in order to finance all its new Israeli arms purchases: By 2010 New Delhi’s annual military budget is expected to reach $100 billion.
Overall Indo-Israeli trade has also seen a huge increase, climbing from about $250 million annually to more than $1.15 billion in 2002, with the exchange of arms seeing the most rapid growth.
In addition to IMA, another state-run arms conglomerate — Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) — has signed lucrative technology and training contracts with the Indian Air Force (IAF). JINSA reports that negotiations are also under way for Israel to provide state-of-the-art fire control systems and thermal imagers for the Indian Army’s Russian-made T-72 tank fleet.
In February, the International Herald Tribune reported that India plans to purchase two Israeli Elta Green Pine long-range radar systems, a component of the “Arrow” Ballistic Missile Defense System.
Begun in 1988, the joint US-Israel Arrow missile program has had over 75 percent of its development money coming from the US Department of Defense.
With the lifting of sanctions on the Phalcon sale, strategic talks between Israel, India and the United States may clear the way for the transfer of a complete Arrow missile defense system to New Delhi.
According to JINSA, a 2001 review by the US Department of Defense concluded that the “defensive nature” of the Arrow system exempts it from sales restrictions imposed by the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), an international agreement designed to stop the spread of offensive missile technology.

http://www.aljazeerah.info