American study: a comprehensive failure to the UAE defense industries
A US research study has identified a complete failure to the UAE’s defense industry and described it as “hopeless and limited” despite the huge money being spent from Abu Dhabi.
Carnegie Middle East center researcher Jean-Loup Samaan said in his study that the UAE had so far been unable to meet its aspirations in local defense industries and had failed to develop them.
Samaan explained that despite the UAE efforts in developing its military industries compared to other Gulf countries, the achievements in this range is still limited.
He pointed out that the UAE and Saudi Arabia, in the past few years, have strengthened their efforts to increase their local military potential, in order to diversify the sources of income of the economy, especially after the crisis of falling oil prices, as well as work to reduce its dependence on external weapons.
“This is why strengthening local defense companies features prominently in documents such as Saudi Vision 2030 or Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030,” he said, adding that the rise of the UAE defense industry may remain an isolated phenomenon in the end.
At the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi on February 17, the UAE company, Calidus, signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi-based defense and aviation company JDC Middle East to export its attack aircraft “P-250” to other markets in the Middle East and North Africa.
“The project signaled the ostentatious resolve of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia to strengthen their domestic defense industries,” he said.
” Foreign arms sales to Gulf countries have traditionally come with requirements, known as “offset clauses,” to ensure that the contractors support the local economy through joint ventures with domestic companies, investments, and employment of the local labor force—yet, to date, their economic output has been modest. Gulf defense industries are still barely on the radar of global arms markets, strikingly low visibility compared to the size of the GCC military budgets.”
Day after day, the UAE is increasingly concerned with the manufacture and purchase of weapons and military equipment, sometimes by buying weapons through major international deals and by manufacturing these weapons on UAE soil.
Although the purchase and sale of arms cannot be condemned by a state that wants to possess these weapons as stipulated by international laws and customs, the experience of the UAE with the purchase and sale of weapons has always been in the direction that can be condemned in the light of the expansion of its conspiracies and foreign wars and Countries.
Since 2015, the UAE is in economic problems following the deterioration of oil prices, and a continued deficit of the federal budget and local budgets, and the decline of tourism in the country despite the incentives provided by the country. With the collapse of property values in the state, a new crisis bubble is approaching the UAE, threatening the setback of the UAE economy, which continues to try to recover from the setback of 2008.
The UAE continued to tax citizens, including value-added tax, increased electricity and water tariffs, and increased government fees for transactions.
In addition to this weak economy and the purchase of arms, the UAE has been involved in the Yemen war since 2015 in the Saudi-led “Arab Alliance.”
According to a previous study, the UAE spends about $ 3.1 billion a month on the war in Yemen, meaning it spends more than $ 36 billion a year in Yemen alone. In addition to other financial expenses to improve reputation through specialized international companies, and others accompanying the war.
The UAE is also spending billions of dollars to support its ally, Khalifa Khafater, in Libya, where 17 local militias fund thousands of fighters to spread chaos and sabotage in the country.
