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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Sudan lacked a reliable source of military matériel as of
mid-1991, even though the country faced a severe shortage of
equipment and of support items. Most of its weaponry of Soviet
design was more than twenty years old and could be kept
operational only with the limited help provided by Libya and
China. As a result, most of the Soviet tanks, artillery,
missiles, and aircraft were not in serviceable condition. Western
suppliers were unwilling to provide arms for use against the
southern insurgents. Military credits previously available from
Saudi Arabia and the countries of the Persian Gulf had been cut
off as a reaction to Sudan's continued support of Iraq, following
Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Egypt, normally an important
source of both equipment and training, had severely curtailed its
cooperation with the Bashir government. Some assistance,
particularly in the form of munitions, had been provided by Iraq,
but this help had ended in August 1990. Although Libya and China
continued to provide some military items, the supply from China
was limited by the strict financial terms imposed by the Beijing
authorities.
Except for a production line for small caliber ammunition,
Sudan has never had an arms industry. Consequently, foreign
sources for weapons, equipment, ammunition, and technical
training have been indispensable. After independence British
advisers helped train the Sudanese army and air force, and
British equipment predominated in the ground forces. Relations
between the government in Khartoum and London were periodically
strained, however, and after the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War,
diplomatic and military ties were severed. Military links with
the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany) were also broken for a time.
The breach with the Western nations was followed by a period
of close military cooperation with the Soviet Union between 1968
and 1971. Sudan benefited from the Soviet Union's first
significant military assistance program in a sub-Saharan Africa
country. By 1970 it was estimated that there were 2,000 Soviet
and East European technical advisers in the country. About 350
Sudanese received training in the Soviet Union and other
communist countries. Soviet assistance corresponded with a
dramatic growth in the Sudanese armed forces from 18,000 in 1966
to nearly 50,000 by 1972. The bulk of the equipment used by the
ground and air forces throughout the 1970s and until the early
1980s was of Soviet origin, including tanks, artillery, and MiG
combat aircraft.
Vulnerabilities resulting from overreliance on one arms
supplier became obvious when relations with the Soviet Union
cooled considerably following the coup attempt against Nimeiri in
1971. Soviet and East European military advisers were expelled
from Sudan for a year. After relations were repaired, previously
arranged deliveries of tanks were completed and a new purchase of
combat aircraft was negotiated. Military agreements with the
Soviet Union remained in force until 1977, but Sudan began to
pursue a policy of diversifying its arms sources. When Moscow
promised extensive military aid to the revolutionary regime in
neighboring Ethiopia, the Sudanese government expelled all ninety
Soviet military advisers and ordered the military section of the
Soviet embassy in Khartoum closed.
After its relations with the Soviet Union chilled again,
Sudan turned to China, which supplied the SPAF initially with
light weapons and later delivered fighter aircraft and light
tanks. As of the mid-1980s, about fifty Chinese advisers provided
maintenance support for tanks and aircraft, including Soviet
equipment previously supplied, and trained Sudanese pilots and
aircraft mechanics.
Military cooperation with Britain resumed in 1973, although
it was confined mainly to training and instruction at the
Military College and the armored, infantry, and signals schools.
Yugoslavia assisted in founding the Sudanese navy; for more than
a decade it provided all of the vessels and the bulk of officer
and technical training. The Yugoslav naval support program was
not renewed in 1972, however, because of frustrations the
Yugoslavs encountered in accomplishing their mission. In 1989
four more river craft were acquired from Yugoslavia, and
subsequently a Yugoslav delegation was reported to have visited
Khartoum to discuss a revival of training assistance.
The purchase of weapons from Western countries was financed
largely by oil-rich Arab states that were pleased to see Soviet
influence in Sudan ended. Arab financial assistance, especially
from Saudi Arabia, was instrumental in the purchase in 1977 of
six C-130 Hercules transport aircraft from the United States,
estimated to cost US$74 million, and two Buffalo transports from
Canada. Saudi assistance was also credited for Sudan's
acquisition of ten light helicopters and as many as 4,000
vehicles from West Germany. In addition, Saudi Arabia in 1980
supplied the SPAF with seventy used American-built M-41 and M-47
tanks from its reserve inventory.
Until 1985 Sudan maintained its closest military ties with
Egypt. Under a twenty-five-year defense agreement signed in 1976,
the two countries established a joint defense council, a joint
general staff organization, and a permanent military committee to
implement decisions of the joint council and the staff
organization. Since 1986 Egypt has provided Egyptian-manufactured
Swingfire antitank missiles, Walid armored personnel carriers,
ammunition, and other equipment to Sudan. Although Sadiq al Mahdi
declared his intention to abrogate the defense pact in order to
meet a key SPLA condition for peace, Bashir reaffirmed the pact
after his takeover in 1989. The internal repressions of the new
government and Sudan's refusal to condemn the Iraqi invasion of
Kuwait in 1990, however, produced discord between the two
nations, and Egypt rejected appeals from Sudanese leaders for
additional military aid.
Until 1976 United States military aid to Sudan was
negligible, consisting primarily of training in the United States
for a small number of Sudanese officers. Soon after officially
agreeing in November 1976 to provide Sudan with selected arms,
the United States sold Sudan transport aircraft financed by Saudi
Arabia, followed several years later by F-5 combat airplanes.
Believing that Sudan was threatened by neighboring Ethiopian and
Libyan forces heavily armed by the Soviet Union, Washington
adopted a growing role in Sudan's security. Between fiscal year
(
FY--see Glossary)
1979 and FY 1982, military sales credits rose
from US$5 million to US$100 million. Subsequent aid was extended
on a grant basis. In addition to aircraft, United States aid
consisted of APCs, M-60 tanks, artillery, and Commando armored
cars. United States grant aid reached a peak of US$101 million in
FY 1982; at the time, this constituted two-thirds of all United
States military assistance to sub-Saharan Africa. Between the
inception of the program in 1976 and its virtual termination in
1986, military grants and sales credits to Sudan totaled US$154
million and US$161 million, respectively. Sudan granted the
United States naval port facilities at Port Sudan and agreed to
some airport prepositioning rights for military equipment for
contingent use by the United States Central Command. Sudanese and
United States forces participated in joint maneuvers designated
Operation Bright Star in 1981 and 1983.
When civil war again erupted in the south in 1983, military
grants and credits from the United States dropped abruptly and in
1985 Sudan terminated Operation Bright Star. After FY 1987, no
assistance was extended with the exception of less than US$1
million annually for advanced training for Sudanese officers and
training in the maintenance of previously supplied equipment.
Military aid was formally suspended in 1989 under a provision of
the United States Foreign Assistance Act prohibiting assistance
to countries in arrears on interest payments on previous loans.
In March 1990, the United States also invoked a provision of the
act barring assistance to regimes overthrowing a democratic
government.
According to a survey by ACDA of sources of arms imported by
Sudan, Sudan obtained about US$350 million in military arms and
equipment between 1983 and 1988. The United States was the
largest supplier, accounting for US$120 million. China and France
each provided US$30 million and Britain US$10 million. About
US$160 million came from unidentified sources, probably largely
from Egypt and Libya, and as purchases from other Western
suppliers financed by Arab countries.
Data as of June 1991
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