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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
Between 1947 and 1991, Saudi Arabia's purchases under the
Foreign Military Sales program of the United States Department of
Defense totaled approximately US$60 billion. More than 80 percent
of these purchases were for construction of infrastructure--bases
and command and control facilities--together with maintenance,
spare parts, and training. Fewer than 20 percent of the purchases
were for weapons.
The first United States military mission of any consequence
arrived in Saudi Arabia in 1943, but the first significant mutual
defense agreement was not formalized until June 1951. As a result
of that agreement, a United States Military Training Mission
(USMTM) arrived for duty in the kingdom in 1953 to supervise all
military assistance and training activities. Until the late
1960s, this assistance was provided primarily on a grant basis.
During the reign of Saud, the government was continually faced
with large budget deficits despite increasing oil revenues. By
1964, after Saud had been deposed and Faisal had become king, the
country was on a better economic footing and it was able to pay
for the major purchases of arms, infrastructure, and training
services that followed.
Initially, the primary purpose of the United States in
establishing the special relationship with Saudi Arabia was to
check the spread of Soviet influence in that area of the world
and the consequent threat to Middle East oil. The Saudis were
conscious of the Soviet danger, and the royal family was
inherently anticommunist; nevertheless, because of proximity,
Israel and Iran were perceived to be the most immediate threats
to the security of the kingdom. Saudi Arabia did not want the
Arabian Peninsula to become an arena of superpower contention and
was opposed to the establishment of United States bases or to the
stationing in the kingdom of large numbers of United States
military personnel.
After the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, which triggered a
sharp increase in oil prices, Saudi Arabia was able to allocate
large sums to the modernization and training of the armed forces.
Until the late 1980s, the primary areas of activity by the United
States were the wide range of construction activities by the Army
Corps of Engineers, the Saudi Naval Expansion Program, and the
Saudi Ordnance Corps Program to establish an integrated
logistics, supply, and maintenance system. In 1988 the Corps of
Engineers completed its program that had kept it engaged in the
kingdom for twenty-three years.
President Jimmy Carter's proposal to sell advanced F-15
fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia in 1978 and his proposal to loan
and later to sell the kingdom AWACS aircraft after the outbreak
of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980 touched off bitter disputes in
Congress. The sale of the F-15s was approved under conditions
that limited their range and offensive power because of fears
that they could tip the regional balance against Israel.
President Ronald Reagan decided the sale of the AWACS aircraft
should proceed to help the Saudis guard against attacks on their
oil installations. He urged that the transfer of five AWACS and
seven aerial refueling tankers be approved. The package also
included auxiliary fuel tanks for the F-15 fighters and more than
1,000 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. For Saudi Arabia, the
purchase request became a test of the firmness of the
relationship, but for the United States it became a political
nightmare because Israel and its supporters in the United States
raised strenuous objections to the sale. After lengthy
congressional hearings and investigations, the package was
narrowly approved with special restrictions on the use of the
AWACS aircraft.
In 1985 President Reagan sought authority to sell Saudi
Arabia forty-two additional F-15s, antiaircraft missiles, Harpoon
antiship missiles, and Blackhawk troop-carrying helicopters.
Again, the proposal raised a storm of opposition in Congress and
had to be withdrawn. In 1986 and 1988, scaled-down packages were
introduced and eventually approved by Congress after Stinger
antiaircraft and Maverick antitank missiles were deleted. Among
the approved items were Bradley fighting vehicles, TOW II
antitank missiles, electronic upgrades for the F-15s, and twelve
additional F-15s to remain in the United States until needed as
replacements.
United States arms transfer agreements with Saudi Arabia
increased dramatically in 1990. Of a total of US$14.5 billion in
contracts signed, US$6.1 billion preceded the Iraqi invasion of
Kuwait. They included LAVs, TOW II launchers and missiles, and
155mm howitzers, all for the national guard, 315 M1A2 tanks, and
30 tank recovery vehicles. After the invasion, the United States
hastily arranged a package that included F-15 aircraft, M1A2 and
M-60A3 tanks and other armored vehicles, Stinger, TOW II, and
Patriot missiles, Apache helicopters, and about 10,000 trucks.
A second phase of the arms package, worth an estimated US$14
billion, was postponed in early 1991 to reassess Saudi needs in
the postwar atmosphere in the Persian Gulf. It was reported to
include additional F-15s, M1A2 tanks, AWACS aircraft, and Bradley
fighting vehicles. As of the close of 1991, the United States
faced the question of reconciling Saudi Arabia's desire for
further large-scale arms purchases to build its deterrent
strength with the United States desire to limit the export of
advanced weaponry to the volatile Middle East region. The issue
was linked to negotiations over the preliminary positioning of
equipment for up to one army corps in depots on Saudi territory
to permit the rapid deployment of United States ground forces in
the event of renewed Middle East hostilities.
Data as of December 1992
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