Russia tops USA in arms sales and becomes world’s largest arms supplier

[Freedom_from_Chains]

I'm going to make a guess here and say that they are not predominately selling to people who are our friends.


Russia has sold more weapons than the U.S. in 2005, first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. The report, entitled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations 1998-2005,” says that in 2005 Moscow surpassed U.S. and France in weapons sales, which totaled $7.1 billion.



Russia becomes leading arms supplier in the world



Competition at the world arms sales market has become something of a continuation of the Cold War. Experts indicate that today’s competition is not a political struggle between the two nations that hold conflicting ideologies; it is an economic variety of competition and struggle for the world dominance. However, Russian military experts doubt the figures cited by the analytical service of U.S. congress and await the text of the report.

The congressional study says Russia has become a leading arms supplier following the recent sale of Russian weapons to Iran and China. Russia will supply 29 SA-15 surface-to-air missile systems to the Iranian Air Force. The second deal calls for the supply of 8 IL-78M Tanker Transport to China, Nezavizimaya Gazeta reports. The recent deals total $700 million. Russia would have sat next to France on the list of the world’s biggest arms exporters if the above deals had not been cut. France’s arms sales to developing nations reached a total of $6.3 billion. The U.S. delivered weapons to a total amount of $6.2 billion.

“The United Stated had dominated the highly competitive market of the conventional arms sales since the collapse of the USSR,” said Richard Grimmet, a military analyst who coauthored the report. “Now the situation has changed. Moscow is turning into an increasingly aggressive and pushy player on the weapons market. The market has been booming over the last few years. The arms race intensifies as a result of the developments,” added Grimmet.

Predictably enough, the Russian arms exports to Iran are the Pentagon’s biggest concern. “The crisis over the Iranian nuclear program is far from over,” said another author of the report Robert Bier, an expert with the Research Service of Library of U.S. Congress. “The Pentagon is unlikely to feel enthusiastic about the orders to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities should President Bush issue such orders tomorrow. The point is that Iran’s antiaircraft capability has become significantly stronger following the supply of Russian surface-to-air missile systems. Today nobody will dare assess the effectiveness of U.S. bombing raids. The same applies to Iranian retaliation strikes,” said Bier.

(con't) http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/02-11-2006/85336-Russian_weapons-0

[cadmium]

1. 2 points: 1. I think arms sales was behind a lot of the hype over

both Iraq wars.

The first Iraq war was like a big arms trade show. Patriot missles were obviously more for selling than for defending.

1.Now we don't manufacture much in the USA anymore so it was bound to catch up with us on in the weapons marketplace.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. Oh I agree with you, both wars were kind of demostrations

for global arms sales from your dear old uncle sam.

[cadmium]

5. Evian water--France participated in Iraq war 1

and soldiers were frequently pictured guzzling French bottled water in the hot desert sun in Gulf War. Evian became the bottled water to drink.

Not so much this time

[RC]

3. We import the electronic parts for our high tech war toys from

Japan and China. I don't know about you, but I can see a problem here if boy george starts his war in Iran. We could have that war imported to here by China & Russia.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

4. That has been my thought all along

The truth is any and all wars are between us, China, Russia, or both. Those are really the only three players on the board. Everyone else, Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, etc are just pawns on the board.