Saudi, Japan deals drive record US arms sales

Saudi, Japan deals drive record US arms sales

news.yahoo.com

US foreign military sales have shot past $50 billion in a record-breaking year

the U.S. also hopes to boost sales with India, which is mulling a $1.4 billion deal for 22 Apache helicopters.

"Today, I can confirm that this is already a record-breaking year for foreign military sales. We have already surpassed $50 billion in sales in fiscal year 2012,"

This figure already represents a 70 percent increase over government-to-government sales by the United States in 2011, itself a record-set

(visit the link for the full news article)

Keep in mind these sales around distributed all around the globe, there mostly center around two key countries which Saudi Arabia making up 3/5 of the total and next fiscal year India and there's still another quarter left for this fiscal year.

Here's an interesting reason for the Saudi sale

“During the oil price hikes of 1971 and 1973 the US negotiated an agreement to pay Saudi Arabia higher prices for crude, on the understanding that Saudi Arabia would recycle the petrodollars, many of them through arms deals,” said Professor Scott. “So recently the imports of American hardware to Saudi Arabia have grown significantly.”

www.rt.com...

But the question is what are they buying really?

But this article only touches Govt. to Govt. sales, but look at this:

As for direct commercial sales, whereby companies sell directly to foreign governments as opposed to government-to-government sales, an official report released the previous week only accounts for 2011. That year brought US contractors some $44 billion with top customers including Jordan, Japan, Israel, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

www.rt.com...

So it's in fact even more than that, and that's only sales from the U.S.
Why are all these countries buying arms so much at the moment?
Russia is currently also arming Syria

Is there something even bigger soon to come?

Not only that however.... it's important to consider what arms deals with the U.S. is, it's not only the selling of goods

Can this mean that a country importing US weapons may fall under America’s influence?

“Yes, this link may be correct,” observed Professor Scott. “Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt, for instance, was the third-largest recipient of the US aid, which arrived in the shape of finances and arms. In return, Cairo granted security in the region, which first meant acceptance of Israel.”

www.rt.com...

So it may not only be about sales, it's also "influence"
But acceptance of Israel is more than mere influence, and this is Egypt, i'm sure they already had to "cooperate" ALOT with Israel after camp david's oslo accord's bribe.

But a 70% increase is still something to consider, even though it's mainliy in two countries.
Next year should be even more telling.

But what about Japan?
Why Japan. is it merely just a sale and nothing more?

When the United States chose to recognize the PRC as the government of China in 1979, it nonetheless felt a moral obligation to help the people of Taiwan defend themselves.

There are also strategic considerations at work. Taiwan is part of a chain of islands extending the length of China’s coastline whose owners are allied to the U.S. This “first island chain,” stretching from Japan through Taiwan and the Philippines to the Strait of Malacca, gives the U.S. an invaluable geopolitical position, both to monitor developments within the PRC and to protect some of the world’s most important sea lanes.

www.heritage.org...

So yes there are obligations, the article is quite interesting.
But from Taiwan to Japan is an alliance that could gain strenght as far as China is concerned, but "influence" is much greater than an alliance perhaps.

Also the phillipines is mentioned as you see

President Aquino is fast-driving the Philippines into deeper military and geopolitical involvements with the United States, which jibes with the latter’s strategy to “rebalance” American military power towards the Asia-Pacific.

It seeks US support to deal with China’s aggressive assertion of territorial claims over the West Philippine/South China Sea, including the Scarborough/Panatag shoals and the Spratlys.

Before the P-Noy government can formalize its commitments to allow America to increase troop presence here and reuse Clark and Subic, among other facilities, to pursue US strategy

www.philstar.com...

There is currently alot of tension between China and the Phillipines regarding Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea very recently.

The bulk of America’s warships will be permanently deployed in the Asia-Pacific region by 2020

Philippine President Benigno Aquino is committed to developing a “minimum credible deterrent capacity,” and the US has pledged to help the country step up its defenses in the face of a Chinese threat.

In return for its help, the US will be given greater access to Philippine ports and airports, and according to some reports may even reopen several major bases that were shut down decades ago.

spyghana.com...

I wonder what China is thinking about all of this right now?

China's top newspapers warned on Tuesday that the United States' plans to bolster its naval presence in the Asia-Pacific region threaten to widen rifts between the two big powers.

www.reuters.com...

Neighbouring countries like India, despite being part of this strategy, are worried.

India has called on the United States to "recalibrate" its new strategy in the Asia-Pacific region during talks between Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony and visiting US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday in the Indian capital, said local media Thursday.

During the talks, Panetta outlined the new US Asia-Pacific strategy, saying, "America is at a turning point. After a decade of war, we are developing the new defense strategy in particular, we will expand our military partnerships and our presence in the arc extending from the Western Pacific and East Asia into the Indian Ocean region and South Asia. Defense cooperation with India is a linchpin in this strategy."

www.chinadaily.com.cn...

Of course what this means is for countries like India it's the militarization of its neighborhood.

Thoughts ATS?

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The Saudi deal included 84 F-15s and upgrades to 70 of their existing F-15s for $30B, and an additional $30B for Blackhawks, Apache gunships, bombs, missiles, and delivery systems. That sale was announced back in December of 2011.

The US will send 84 Boeing F-15 jets to its key Middle Eastern ally, and upgrade 70 existing Saudi F-15s.

The agreement is part of a $60bn arms deal covering 10-15 years, approved by the US Congress last year.

www.bbc.co.uk...

The Japan deal was for 42 F-35A fighters to replace their F-4 Phantom IIs. The Phantom originally entered service in the 1960s.

www.defenseindustrydaily.com...


Another $10B is coming from Norway for F-35A fighters.
news.yahoo.com...

I'm not sure how much is coming from Taiwan to upgrade their F-16s, Aegis ships, Patriot missiles, and other weapons systems.

The US has about 100 major warships in the region; that number will not climb beyond 110 even after the "re-balancing" that is proposed. China, meanwhile, is expected to go from 86 major warships in 2009 to 106 by 2020, and these will be operating from nearer their bases.

www.rediff.com...

But the problem is that America's budget is decreasing while China's is increasing.
Is America going to fight against it's own banker?
If so why not find another banker first?

I think what the U.S. is doing in the phillipines is more important than many can imagine.
China has alot of land power in that region with alot of air power in those dispersed lands as well that can attack warships while sitting at home.

But the U.S. has way more experience in cooperating with foreign allies to attack another country and China does not.

But if all of this is true then it's imperative that the U.S cuts it's current loses by ending the war on terror and the war on drugs.
To win this they WILL NEED money!

reply to post by ModernAcademia


China is increasing spending, but it will take years to approach the level of the US, and more importantly to build the doctrine for their forces. The US has been operating combined arms forces for decades, where most other countries based on the Soviet model are very rigidly controlled, so it's going to take China a long time to build a doctrine and get the experience they need.

Yes they potentially are a threat to us, but I don't see them being an immediate threat. If the US builds up their allies in the region and continues to improve on their technology then I can see the threat being reduced pretty well. I don't think that China OR the US wants to see things come to a head other than peacefully.

WOW that is a staggering amount of sales

The US is pretty much selling everything and anything to its most trusted/closest allies, this actually worrys me a little, but it may just be there is a new generation of military hardware it wants to start production with the cash generated from sales, it doesn't make sense at all to sell your best military hardware, Why Now? unless..

A, You have better locked up in black projects which you want to start producing

B You want to make sure you and your allies have the edge in the possible event of a war with Russia/China

I only envision the US selling of its best military hardware in the opening stages of WW3 and now i see they're willing to sell the F-22 Raptor to Japan, makes you think, well... they would need the F-22 to go up against the J-20 being in such close range, i should imagine Taiwan would want to get in on this action next

This is quite an aggressive sell of and was obviously a well thought out decision, they no doubt have had a few years on planing these moves, and i would think it is aimed at the China/Russia/Iran Brigade,

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
I wonder what China is thinking about all of this right now?

Probably this




or

reply to post by TritonTaranis


They WERE willing to sell the F-22. It would cost too much to restart the line now, as production has ended.

As for selling their best, they aren't. A lot of the systems in the Foreign Military Sales aircraft are not the same as in use in our equipment. There are also a lot of systems that are installed specific to that country. It's almost like buying a car, they say which airframe they want, and there are certain things that are fixed, and certain "options".

A prime example is the F-16. If you look under the tail of US F-16s, you'll see an enclosed structure that contains various equipment. If you look at the same place on a lot of foreign F-16s, you'll see the back of that structure is open, and contains a drag chute to be used on landing. The Block 60/62 Desert Falcons, which have been sold to several Middle Eastern countries have conformal fuel tanks added to the top of the fuselage, as well as electronic warfare equipment in those same areas.

But one reason for selling them is that everyone is seeing their equipment get older at the same time. It's especially bad in the US military. I have a thread here somewhere talking about how old the aircraft used by the US military have gotten, and it's a little on the scary side. The average age of the F-15 and F-16, which are still considered top fighters is over 20 years. And those are the younger aircraft. Not counting the F-22, they're almost the youngest aircraft in the inventory.

Originally posted by TritonTaranis
WOW that is a staggering amount of sales

It's more than that if you count public sector