Topic: Weapons Exports From US At $33.7B, Most In 15 Years

Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
October 2, 2008
By Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON — U.S. weapons exports rose about 45 percent to $33.7 billion in the just-ended fiscal year, the highest total since 1993, as the Defense Department increased sales in the Middle East to improve security in the region.
Exports jumped from $23.3 billion in 2007 and $21 billion in 2006, Defense Security Cooperation Agency spokesman Charles Taylor said in an interview Wednesday, the end of the 2008 budget year. The Pentagon agency is responsible for foreign sales.
The Pentagon has pushed to improve Iraq's military capability and to equip Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — with advanced weapons. The idea is to lift their military capabilities in case of aggression from Iran.
"The last big surge was after the first Gulf War" against Iraq in 1991, when the U.S. helped countries in the region upgrade their military, William Hartung, an arms analyst for the Washington-based New America Foundation, said in an interview.
Taylor declined to specify the weapons, buyers and manufacturers with the biggest export increases in 2008. Foreign sales averaged about $10 billion to $13 billion annually between 2000 and 2005, he said.