Gulf expo could boost Mideast arms sales

Gulf expo could boost Mideast arms salesAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UPI) Feb 18, 2011 The Middle East's premier arms exhibition opens Sunday in Abu Dhabi amid forecasts that the region's  
military spending is set to grow by 14 percent over five years. The biannual International Defense Exhibition and Conference, known as IDEX, is also being held Sunday-Thursday as oil prices have once more risen through the $100 level, driven in part by the regional pro-democracy turmoil that has reached the Arab producers of the Persian Gulf.
Escalating tensions between Iran on the one hand and the United States and Israel on the other have led to a major drive by the Arab states in the gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to acquire more advanced and powerful weapons systems.
High oil prices provide the gulf states with vast amounts of petrodollars to fund ambitious military procurement programs. Recent analyses predict that the gulf Arab monarchies will spend $122 billion on advanced combat jets, integrated missile defense systems, main battle tanks, attack helicopters and warships over the next decade or two.
The combination of the rising oil prices -- the current level is around $103 per barrel, the highest mark since September 2008 -- and growing concerns in the gulf that they, too, will be infected by the political turmoil sweeping the region is a heady mix.
Whether, as some industry analysts suggest, this will trigger further arms purchases isn't clear.
But with strategic arms procurement seemingly already in hand, any fresh spending is likely to be directed at strengthening internal security forces to counter any threat against the regimes in place.
However, this turmoil could be exploited by Tehran, as may be the case with the current unrest in Bahrain, the only Arab state in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council alliance to have a Shiite majority.
IDEX officials say 1,060 companies will exhibit at the show in Abu Dhabi, the emirates' capital. That's a record since the expo was launched in 1993 and more than 100 higher than IDEX 2009.
This year's exhibitors include the Lockheed Martin Corp. of Maryland, the Boeing Co. of Chicago, France's Dassault Aviation, Finmeccanica of Italy which supplies warships to the gulf states, Germany's Rhinemetall AG, and Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, which notched sales of $10 billion in 2010.
The arms show will run simultaneously with a naval defense exhibition, NAVDEX 2011, with 81 companies participating. Warships from the emirates' navy, Britain, Italy and France will be on display.