According to the US Congressional report, the biggest weapons buyer in 2008 was the United Arab Emir

The question on my mind is why and for what purpose UAE is buying so many weapons?
It is Middle East. Are they gearing up towaqrds something?

Sales of U.S. arms have doubled during last year and now account for more than two-thirds of all foreign weapons sales, according to a report by the New York Times.
Top news

What is your opinion on this subject?

I'm a big fan of Steyr pistols and their designer, who used to work for Glock, just designed a pistol for use by the UAE military and civilians that they are trying to bring to America.

They have taken in my opinion the best pistol builder in the world, and had him build them his newest and latest design to date.

If they did the same in other weaponry fields, they may have amassed quite a military!

Instead of buying American, Russian, Bulgarian, German or Austrian weapons, as most of the rest of the world does, they are having their own designed.

Are they going to try to step out as a super power once Iran and israel obliterate each other?

[edit on 7-9-2009 by breakingdradles]

These are the kind of things UAE were looking for

* 3 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Fire Units with 147 THAAD missiles
* 78 complete AVENGER fire units including Vehicle Mounted Stinger Launch Platform fire units, 780 STINGER-Reprogrammable Micro-Processor Block 1 Anti-Aircraft missiles, and 24 STINGER Block 1 Buy-to-Fly missiles
* 390 AGM-114N HELLFIRE missiles
* 288 AIM-120C-7 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) Air Intercept Missiles
* 4 PATRIOT Advanced Capability (PAC-3) Intercept Aerial Missiles with containers, 19 MIM-104D Guided Enhanced Missiles-T with containers (GEM-T), 5 Anti-Tactical Missiles, and 5 PATRIOT Digital Missiles
* 14 UH-60M BLACK HAWK helicopters with engines.

www.armscontrol.org...

Found this to be interesting as well

The United Arab Emirates has seized a ship carrying North Korean-manufactured munitions, detonators, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades bound for Iran in violation of United Nations sanctions, diplomats said.

The UAE two weeks ago notified the UN Security Council of the seizure, according to the diplomats, who spoke on condition they aren’t named because the communication hasn’t been made public.

www.bloomberg.com...

reply to post by jam321


I read through the weapons you have posted and my first thought was it is air defence.
Against who I wander?
UFO? Aliens? or Israel or Iran.

"Google is your friend"

I dug up this little gem, a pdf file, avaible via google, i'll just paste the link. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, pdf file

You gotta love disclosure at the end of the document. Heh, it's possibly already happened. And why am i not surprised to see Boeing's name slapped first on the list, the devious bastards.

You gotta love it either way.

My first bet is black market trading.. the legit buy the big guns, sell em to the highest bidder, the shady creepers who can't just buy the weapons outright.. the UAE is in a severe economic slump.. even untouchable Dubai is in trouble.. so I doubt they are building a massive army.. imo, of course.

reply to post by xxxcosta


Well, UAE will be the haven of the Elite when SHTF after all. Of course it's gotta be protected.

reply to post by eldard


Yes, they have a lot of money out that way. (and oil) Probably scared of loosing their wealth and trying to make sure they have protection...
Cause Iran aand Israel is not very far away...
I have seen a lot of info on ATS about upcoming event, a war if you will.

Well we aren't the only ones making deals.

Major arms deals by Latin American countries

(Reuters) - Venezuela's new weapons deals have spread fears of a South American arms race and put President Hugo Chavez where he is happiest -- challenging U.S. power and playing to his home crowd.

South American nations are spending billions bulking up the military to defend rugged jungle and mountain borders as well as oil and mineral reserves. However, analysts say the region faces few real external threats.

Following are some details about arms purchases by major Latin American countries in recent years:

Official: Russian arms sales to set new record

MOSCOW—Russian arms sales are set to reach a new post-Soviet record this year, a top official said Tuesday.

Russia's weapons exports will exceed $8 billion this year, Russian news agencies quoted Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, as saying.

Arms sales have grown at a quick pace, reaching a post-Soviet record of $7.5 billion last year and on track to surpass that for 2008.

According to the latest report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia accounted for a quarter of global arms sales in 2003-2007, coming a close second after the United States.

While China and India have been the leading customers, Russia recently also has struck big weapons deals with Venezuela, Algeria and Iran.

Yeah, Chavez is a great military mind. Buys a #load of tanks for a country (or region for that matter) not "designed" for armored warfare.

Ofcourse, their main guns are really for pointing at his citizenry but...

reply to post by SLAYER69


A very nice addition to the thread my friend. Maybe if we know where the mojority of weaponry goes we can kind of estimate where S**T going to hit the fence.

I wonder what exactly was on that "lost" Russian ship??


S300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran,
Russia ratchets up US tensions with arms sales to Iran and Venezuela

Russia defied the United States yesterday by announcing plans to sell military hardware to Iran and Venezuela.

The head of the state arms exporter said that he was negotiating to sell antiaircraft systems to Iran despite American objections. Russia has already delivered 29 Tor-M1 missile systems under a $700 million (£386 million) deal with Iran in 2005.

“Contacts between our countries are continuing and we do not see any reason to suspend them,” Anatoli Isaikin, the general director of Rosoboronexport, told the RIA-Novosti news agency at an arms fair in South Africa.

Reports have circulated for some time that the Kremlin is preparing to sell its S300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran, offering greater protection against a possible US or Israeli attack on the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities. The missiles have a range of more than 90 miles (150km).