A season of arms purchases
Brazil's announcement yesterday that it is negotiating a $2-4 billion purchase of French fighter aircraft is the latest in a series of arms purchases, most of them in South America, that have analysts worried about an arms race. Just in 2009, we have seen the following arms purchases announced:
- Brazil will buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from French aircraft manufacturer Dassault. Earlier, Brazil had announced a joint venture with France to build submarines - one of them nuclear-powered - and helicopters.
- Russia offered a $100 million credit to Bolivia to buy Mi-17 helicopters, a new presidential plane, trucks and other logistical equipment. In January, Bolivia's defense ministry announced its intention to buy six Czech-made L-159 fighter planes.
- President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, whose government signed deals for about $4.4 billion worth of Russian fighter planes, helicopters and rifles between 2005 and 2007, announced in early August the purchase of 30 to 40 Russian-made BMP-3, T-72 and MPR tanks. In April, Chávez announced the purchase of portable Russian missiles.
- "Ecuador is buying 24 Brazilian warplanes and six Israeli drones to keep a closer watch on its borders," the AP reports.
- In June, Chile announced a $270 million purchase of 18 U.S.-made F-16 fighters from the Netherlands. This follows the purchase of 10 F-16s directly from the United States in 2005-2006.
- In addition to billions of dollars worth of training and equipment received as grants, Colombia has purchased dozens of helicopters from the United States during the 2000s, and in June announced a $150 million purchase of Israeli Kfir fighter jets from Israel.
During the mid-2000s, the United States normally sold between $1.1 and $1.4 billion in weapons to all of Latin America and the Caribbean in a typical year. This amount is dwarfed by some of Russia's single sales to Venezuela during this period, as well as the new French contract with Brazil. Sill, the United States is by far the largest arms vendor to the developing world, according to an annual Congressional Research Service report released late last week and summarized by the New York Times.
The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before. Italy was a distant second, with $3.7 billion in worldwide weapons sales in 2008, while Russia was third with $3.5 billion in arms sales last year.