Gulf States' total US weapons deals hit $123 bln

To counter Iran’s military power, the Arab Gulf States' total ordering of U.S. weapons has catapulted to $123 billion, the UAE-based The Gulf News reported.

Providing a huge boost to the U.S. defense industry, the U.S.-Saudi deal alone deems to be the largest U.S. weapons agreement mounting to $67 billion.

The first batch of the deal - soon to go before the U.S. Congress for approval - is estimated at about $30 billion.

Saudi's deal is the biggest

Saudi Arabia will receive 85 new F-15 jet fighters and another 70 will be upgraded. Boeing will be the key supplier, allowing the U.S. company to strengthen its ability to manufacture advanced military jets, an area where it has been slipping under competitive pressure and post-2007 financial crisis.

A successor agreement is expected to provide for the upgrade of radar and missile defense systems and an ambitious modernization of the Saudi Navy's eastern fleet.

The deal comes at a time after the Russian-built Iranian nuclear reactor, Bushehr, was completed on August. The Iranians claim it was built for peaceful purposes, but Iran’s reluctance to accept IAEA’s surprise visits to its other nuclear facilities sends the alarm signal for its neighboring Gulf Arab countries.

"The Saudi aim is to send a message especially to the Iranians — that we have complete aerial superiority over them," said a Saudi defense analyst.

The Saudi aim is to send a message especially to the Iranians — that we have complete aerial superiority over them

Saudi defense analyst

Other Gulf State's deals

UAE has received clearance to buy Thaad, a high altitude missile defense system being developed by Lockheed Martin. The UAE and Kuwait have each signed contracts for upgrades to their Patriot missile defense systems, developed by Raytheon, which cover lower levels of an air defense "curtain."

UAE had signed contracts to buy military equipment worth $35 billion and $40 billion, said Theodore Karasik from the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.

Oman is also expected to spend $12 billion and Kuwait $7 billion in the period until the end of 2014 on replacing and upgrading warplanes and new command and control systems, according to Blenheim Capital Partners, a consultancy that arranges offset deals.

Oman's package will include 18 new F-16 jet fighters and upgrades for another 12. This will benefit Lockheed Martin, reinforcing its position as the leading U.S. manufacturer of warplanes.

The total value of all U.S. arms deals with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Kuwait is estimated at $122.88 billion over the next four years.

Regional deterrence

Anthony Cordesman, from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the United States was aiming to achieve a "new post-Iraq war security structure that can secure the flow of energy exports to the global economy."

The Arab Gulf States, who have embarked on one of the largest rearmament exercises in peacetime history, also fear that any Israeli or U.S. military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities could provoke retaliation against them, or disrupt the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Middle East is home to two-thirds of the world’s proven oil reserves.

The arms sales would "reinforce the level of regional deterrence and help reduce the size of forces the United States must deploy in the region," added Cordesman.

Grant Rogan, Blenheim's chief executive, said that Middle Eastern and south-east Asian countries had traditionally bought arms on a one-off basis. But now they are replacing western Europeans as some of the biggest regular arms purchasers.

"They are the big buyers," he said.

On April the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates urged Iran to end the occupation of three islands in the Gulf, and described the occupation as “brazen and impudent.”