TheEconomistFebruary 15th 2020 531T
he flowof foreign arms to the Arabian
peninsula began in earnest 150 years
ago. As European armies adopted modern
breech-loading rifles, a stock of old-fash-
ioned weapons was left surplus to require-
ments. Rivalries among Arab tribes created
a ready-made market for ageing arms. A
combination of the region’s chronic insta-
bility and oil riches has since continued to
fuel weapons sales. Most of them still come
from the West. Now the shifting sands of
geopolitics have left an opening for others.
At the Dubai air show last November
Viktor Kladov of Rostec, a state-run firm
that handles exports from Russia’s defence
companies, told The Economistthat Rus-
sian weapons exports to the Middle East
apparently hit an all-time high of $13.7bn in
- With a candour unusual in his indus-
try, Mr Kladov put this down to Russia’s
willingness to sell most things to most
people. Europeans and Americans can in-
deed be queasy about sending some weap-
onry to places with mixed human-rights
records. The war in Syria, Mr Kladov said,
was a chance to “showcase” Russian arms.
Chinese firms, similarly unconstrained,
are also piling in. And Middle Eastern
countries are keen to build their own de-
fence industries. The battle for the world’s
fastest-growing arms market may be about
to heat up.War powers
Big Western defence firms mostly rely on
their domestic markets for sales and pro-
fits. Exports account for less than a third of
revenues for Lockheed Martin, the world’s
biggest armsmaker. But the global export
market is big—and getting bigger. The
Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute (sipri), a think-tank, put it at
$100bn in 2018. Overseas revenues help
smooth over downswings in domestic de-
fence budgets and support the gargantuan
investments required for big projects.
A growing share of these revenues
comes from the Middle East. In 2014-18 the
region received a third of the world’s arms
exports, second only to Asia Pacific, ac-cording to sipri(see chart on next page).
Countries there imported 87% more weap-
ons in that period than they had in the pre-
vious five years. In 2018 Saudi Arabia
splurged $68bn on military kit, more than
anyone bar America and China. The United
Arab Emirates (uae) was the seventh-big-
gest spender in 2014-18; tiny Qatar and
Oman made the top 20.
America’s massive weapons-makers,
whose home market is responsible for 36%
of global defence spending, dominate the
industry. All but eight of the world’s 20 big-
gest defence firms by sales are American.
America’s industry accounted for 36% of
global exports in 2014-18, reckons sipri.
Countries in the Middle East snapped up
over half of American exports in that per-
iod, as well as 60% of Britain’s, 44% of
France’s and 25% of Germany’s. In 2018 the
Middle East contributed $3.6bn, or around
7%, to the revenues of Lockheed Martin.
Raytheon, the fourth-biggest producer,
made 15% of its overall sales in the region
(including north Africa), which were worth
roughly $4bn.
Most Middle Eastern cash goes on air
power. Buying, arming and maintaining
combat jets is an expensive business, ac-
counting for nearly two-thirds of global ex-
ports in the past decade. Saudi Arabia has
amassed the world’s eighth-largest fleet of
combat aircraft. A contract signed in 2011
for 84 new f-15 fighters and upgrades to 70
existing planes is worth $24bn to BoeingArmsmakers in the Middle East
From muskets to missiles
DUBAI
Chinese, Russian and local defence firms begin to battle Western giants for the
last big weapons market that is still up for grabs
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