Local Editor
A surge in weapons purchases by Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition of countries fighting in Yemen, helped to push global arms sales up by more than 10 per cent last year, according to an annual report.
The world defence market climbed to US$65 billion last year, up by $6.6bn on 2014, the consulting company IHS said in its Global Defence Trade Report. That is the largest yearly increase in the past decade, according to the Colorado company.
While Saudi purchases jumped about 50 per cent to $9.3bn, growth was seen across much of the Middle East and South East Asia.
As middle-income countries record increases in their GDP, they have more "relative resources" to spend on military equipment, according to Ben Moores, a senior defence analyst at IHS Aerospace, Defence and Security who wrote the report. The study examined trends in the global defence market across 65 countries.
The boost in Saudi weapons imports came as the kingdom leads a coalition targeting revolutionaries in Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s purchases in the past year include Eurofighter Typhoon jets, F-15 warplanes and Apache helicopters, as well as precision-guided weapons, drones and surveillance equipment, Moores said.
The US last year supplied about $23bn in goods and equipment, of which $8.8bn went to the Middle East, boosted by the sale of aircraft and associated mission systems.
"Going forward, the total may exceed $30bn as deliveries of the F-35 begin to ramp up," the report said, referring to the next-generation fighter aircraft built by Lockheed Martin.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
