Procure and protect: Middle East procurement

The global financial crisis and sharp drop in oil prices aside, the Middle East remains a major defence market with no end in sight to efforts to acquire the highest level of defence technologies.

While counter-insurgency and piracy deterrence are the primary drivers of most procurement strategies, the continued threat of a nuclear Iran and the re-integration of a fragile Iraq into the regional equation loom large over major acquisitions in line with a greater commitment towards co-operative security expressed by Arab nations, the Gulf states in particular.

Declining global fortunes have made the relatively stable, relatively cash-rich Middle Eastern nations even more attractive to international defence companies. The race is on to provide them with the most attractively priced, technologically advanced and well-designed weapon systems, complete with lucrative after-sale service and maintenance contracts.

Within the region, however, there is a wide spectrum of capability, capacity and cash flow that limits the effectiveness of sweeping generalisations about regional trends in procurement; poor countries such as Yemen and Lebanon cannot be equated with the immensely wealthy nations in the Gulf such as Saudi Arabia, which has long been ranked among the top 10 largest importers of weapons worldwide.

Image: A Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft in the full two-tone grey livery of the Royal Saudi Air Force. (BAE Systems) 200 of 4,255 words