Monday, November 23, 2009

Ruling dynasties that you like and arm

"Saudi Arabia, long the major arms-buyer in the region, is now being overtaken by relative minnows such as the United Arab Emirates as they share their neighbour's fear of the growing military strength of their Shia neighbour...BAE Systems, Britain's biggest arms manufacturer, is currently delivering to Saudi Arabia an order for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets, which it makes as part of a European consortium.Defence spending in the kingdom is projected to rise from $43.52 billion this year (pounds 26.17 billion) to $47.4 billion (pounds 28.5billion) in 2010. But other Gulf states are catching up. Eurofighter's chief executive, Enzo Casolini, told the show he thought the Middle East would buy half the 300 Eurofighters he has set as his target sales figure by 2020. The United Arab Emirates is now the third largest arms importer in the world, after China and India, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute." (thanks Dina)