#us arms

[amnestyusa]

Block the Bombs: Stop the $1 Billion U.S. Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia. Take action NOW.

[statetimes1]

US arms Pak with combat aircraft, trainer jets

US arms Pak with combat aircraft, trainer jets

Washington: The US has handed over to Pakistan 14 combat aircraft, 59 military trainer jets and 374 armoured personnel carriers, which were earlier used by American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As the US withdraws its forces from neighbouring Afghanistan, the major defence articles have been transferred to Pakistan under its ‘Excessive Defence Article’ category, an internal Congressional…

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[ujjalnewsnish]

Sale of US arms fuelling wars in ME

New Post has been published on http://www.newsnish.com/international/sale-of-us-arms-fuelling-wars-in-me/

Sale of US arms fuelling wars in ME

To wage war in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is using F-15 fighter jets bought from Boeing. Pilots from the United Arab Emirates are flying Lockheed Martin’s F-16 to bomb both Yemen and Syria. Soon, the Emirates are expected to complete a deal with General Atomics for a fleet of Predator drones to run spying missions in their neighborhood.

As the Middle East descends into proxy wars, sectarian conflicts and battles against terrorist networks, countries in the region that have stockpiled American military hardware are now actually using it and wanting more. The result is a boom for American defense contractors looking for foreign business in an era of shrinking Pentagon budgets — but also the prospect of a dangerous new arms race in a region where the map of alliances has been sharply redrawn.

Last week, defense industry officials told Congress that they were expecting within days a request from Arab allies fighting the Islamic State — Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt — to buy thousands of American-made missiles, bombs and other weapons, replenishing an arsenal that has been depleted over the past year.

The United States has long put restrictions on the types of weapons that American defense firms can sell to Arab nations, meant to ensure that Israel keeps a military advantage against its traditional adversaries in the region. But because Israel and the Arab states are now in a de facto alliance against Iran, the Obama administration has been far more willing to allow the sale of advanced weapons in the Persian Gulf, with few public objections from Israel.

Industry analysts and Middle East experts say that the region’s turmoil, and the determination of the wealthy Sunni nations to battle Shia Iran for regional supremacy, will lead to a surge in new orders for the defense industry’s latest, most high-tech hardware.

Saudi Arabia spent more than $80 billion on weaponry last year — the most ever, and more than either France or Britain — and has become the world’s fourth-largest defense market, according to figures released last week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks global military spending. The Emirates spent nearly $23 billion last year, more than three times what they spent in 2006.

Qatar, another gulf country with bulging coffers and a desire to assert its influence around the Middle East, is on a shopping spree.

Last year, Qatar signed an $11 billion deal with the Pentagon to purchase Apache attack helicopters and Patriot and Javelin air-defense systems. Now the tiny nation is hoping to make a large purchase of Boeing F-15 fighters to replace its aging fleet of French Mirage jets.

American defense firms are following the money. Boeing opened an office in Doha, Qatar, in 2011, and Lockheed Martin set up an office there this year. Lockheed created a division in 2013 devoted solely to foreign military sales.

American intelligence agencies believe that the proxy wars in the Middle East could last for years. And with the balance of power in the Middle East in flux, several defense analysts said that could change. Russia is a major arms supplier to Iran, and a decision by President Vladimir V Putin to sell an advanced air defense system to Iran could increase demand for the F-35, which is likely to have the ability to penetrate Russian-made defenses.

At the same time, giving the gulf states the ability to strike Iran at a time of their choosing might be the last thing the United States wants. There are already questions about how judicious Washington’s allies are in using American weaponry. Source: The New York Times Online

[newstfionline]

Arms Windfall for Insurgents as Iraq City Falls

New York Times, June 10, 2014

The insurgent fighters who routed the Iraqi army out of Mosul on Tuesday did not just capture much of Iraq’s second-largest city. They also gained a windfall of arms, munitions and equipment abandoned by the soldiers as they fled--arms that were supplied by the United States and intended to give the troops an edge over the insurgents.

The problem is not a new one, but it looms larger now that the United States is shifting its counterterrorism strategy away from using American armed forces directly, and toward relying on allied or indigenous troops and security forces supplied and trained by the United States. President Obama proposed last week that a $5 billion fund be set up to finance such efforts.

But those proxy forces do not always prove equal to the task, and when they buckle, the United States finds itself having unwittingly armed its enemies.

Inadequate or unreliable local allies have allowed American military aid to fall into the wrong hands a number of times in recent years.

In August 2013, an ambitious effort to build up the embryonic Libyan army ended ignominiously when militia fighters overpowered a small guard force at a training base outside Tripoli, the capital. The insurgents looted the base of automatic rifles, night-vision goggles, vehicles and other equipment, and the American instructors were withdrawn while officials sought a more secure training site.

“You have to make sure of who you’re training,” Maj. Gen. Patrick J. Donahue II, the commander of United States Army soldiers operating in Africa, said in an interview last month. “It can’t be the standard, ‘Has this guy been a terrorist or some sort of criminal?’ but also, ‘What are his allegiances? Is he true to the country, or is he still bound to his militia?’ “

The United States invested substantial effort over five years to build up and train Mali’s army to fight Al Qaeda-linked separatist militants in the desert north of the country, but army units melted away when the militants and allied Tuareg tribesmen mounted an offensive in late 2012. Hundreds of Malian soldiers defected, including commanders of elite units trained by the United States. The army was already in disarray after a coup in March 2012 by an American-trained officer, which allowed the militants to seize half of Mali’s territory and loot military posts. The fighters were prevented from seizing the whole country only when France and several of Mali’s neighbors sent troops to intervene.

There have been clear signs that American-supplied weapons and munitions have been leaking into the hands of Taliban fighters since the early years of the war in Afghanistan, despite efforts to track and account for matériel supplied to Afghan security forces.

Most recently, Sunni extremists in Iraq have been steadily gaining ground against the Shiite-led government of Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, routing the American-trained and equipped Iraqi military in Falluja, Samarra and elsewhere and capturing bases, weapons and vehicles.