Pentagon Poised for $13 Billion in Mideast Arms Sales

[Coyotl]

Business as usual in The Good Old USA, Peacekeepers for the Planet.

Pentagon Poised for $13 Billion in Mideast Arms Sales
Saudi Arabia, Iraq Lead Summer List of Prospective New Deals
Aug. 26, 2013 - 03:45AM | BARBARA OPALL-ROME | http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130826/DEFREG04/308260013/Pentagon-Poised-13-Billion-Mideast-Arms-Sales

TEL AVIV — The Pentagon has notified Congress of US $13 billion in prospective Middle East arms deals over the past 10 weeks, with Saudi Arabia and Iraq leading the administration’s summertime manifest with $10 billion in pre-approved sales of defense equipment and services.

Since mid-June, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) informed Congress of $6.4 billion in potential defense trade with Saudi Arabia, including a $4 billion National Guard modernization program, new Mark V patrol boats and follow-on support for the Royal Saudi Air Force.

In Iraq, DSCS notified Congress of $4.7 billion in possible sales, including a $2.4 billion integrated air defense system and $900 million worth of Stryker vehicles configured for nonconventional warfare scenarios.

During the same period, it informed Congress of a potential $1.1 billion early warning radar deal to Qatar; a $588 million package of C-130J airlifters to Libya and $200 million to support Kuwait’s fleet of F/A-18 fighters.

All the prospective deals, according to DSCA, advance US foreign policy and national security interests and would “not alter the basic military balance in the region.”

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[newfie11]

1. We cant have wars

If countries don't have weapons. So sell the weapons so manufactors get their bucks AND have a war to make the MIC happy.
insane country I live in.

[Coyotl]

2. The hypocrisy is ludicrous.

[arcane1]

3. Yet Saudi Arabia is incapable of a "limited strike" in Syria

[Coyotl]

4. Saudi Arabia is the financial sponser of the opposition in Syria.

But, they don't want opposition in their own country!

[snappyturtle]

5. The Pentagon is licking its chops! I would like to know how many

people work in the defense industry in the U.S. I don't suppose the
BLS has one neat and tidy little chart for that.

[Coyotl]

7. Charts of interest are not easy to find

[snappyturtle]

8. Thank you! nt

[avaistheone1]

10. This is very helpful.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. - Albert Einstein

[jakeXT]

9. Funny they just found $900 million of Stryker parts this year

DOD Inspector General finds $900 million stockpile of Stryker parts

The Army program charged with keeping thousands of eight-wheeled Strykers running over the past decade had its eye so much on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that it neglected to keep its books.

It accumulated nearly $900 million worth of Stryker replacement parts - most of them in an Auburn warehouse - with much of the gear becoming outdated even as the military continued to order more equipment, according to a Defense Department Inspector General report released late last year.

Take, for instance, the $57 million worth of obsolete infrared equipment the Army has not installed in Strykers since 2007. It lingered at the Stryker warehouse until the Inspector General called attention to it last year.

Or, the 9,179 small replacement gears called pinions the Army bought as a temporary fix for a Stryker suspension problem that surfaced between 2007 and 2009. The Army took care of the root malfunction in 2010, but kept buying pinions.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/31/187297/dod-inspector-general-finds-900.html

Scrapping equipment key to Afghan drawdown

...

As they have debated how much excess equipment to shred or sell, officials have considered whether the defense industry would suffer if the Pentagon unloaded tons of used equipment on the market at vastly reduced prices. Additionally, Pentagon policy requires that allied nations seeking to take ownership of excess U.S. equipment travel to Afghanistan to pick it up — an onerous task that few nations are likely to take on.

When the U.S. military withdrew from Iraq, it donated much of its equipment to the Iraqis, who had access to cheap fuel, a robust defense budget and more sophisticated mechanics. The Pentagon also shipped a significant share to Afghanistan, where a troop surge was underway. But donating MRAPs to the Afghans would be more complicated and potentially counterproductive, military officials said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/scrapping-equipment-key-to-afghan-drawdown/2013/06/19/9d435258-d83f-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_story_1.html