Tag Archives: arms trade

Business of War Is Booming as Orders Surge at Top Global Arms Firms

Leave a reply

“The order books of the world’s biggest defense companies are near record highs,” a new Financial Times analysis reveals.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 12-28-2023 by Common Dreams

The event, which is held at the ExCeL London exhibition center, is the world’s largest defense and security event. Screenshot: YouTube

Orders at many of the world’s biggest arms companies are “near record highs” due to rising geopolitical tensions in recent years, an analysis published Wednesday by Financial Times revealed.

The London-based newspaper analyzed the order books of the world’s 15 top arms makers and found their combined backlogs were $777.6 billion at the end of 2022—a 10% increase from 2020.

Continue reading →
Share Button

At the end of the Israel-Gaza clash, the arms industry is the only victor

Leave a reply

Global military analysts will take the lessons from this bout to accelerate the move towards unaccountable (and highly profitable) remote warfare

By Paul Rogers  Published 5-22-2021 by openDemocracy

Photo: suhair zakkout/Twitter

As the 11 days of clashes between Gaza and Israel ends in a ceasefire, the military analysis truly begins. The Israeli army will painstakingly review all of its operations, especially the new weapons and tactics, to judge how successful they were and what improvements are needed.

Hezbollah in Lebanon has far more rockets than Hamas in Gaza, so one of the Israeli army worries will be how Hamas and other factions were able to carry on firing from such a small area right to the end, night after night. Continue reading →

Share Button

Report of Illegal $80 Million Arms Transfer by Erik Prince to Libyan Warlord Raises Question of Who’s Backing Former Blackwater CEO

Leave a reply

Prince has “been linked to the Trump administration, the Emirati leadership, and the Russians,” noted one expert.

By Brett Wilkins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-20-2021

Erik Prince is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and founder of the mercenary firm Blackwater. Screenshot: C-SPAN

Erik Prince, the founder and former CEO of the mercenary firm Blackwater and a close ally of former President Donald Trump, sent weapons to a Libyan warlord in violation of a United Nations arms embargo, according to a confidential U.N. document reported Friday by the New York Times.

The U.N. report, which investigators sent to the Security Council on Thursday, reportedly details how Prince sent foreign mercenaries armed with attack aircraft, gunboats, and cyberwarfare capabilities to support renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar during a major 2019 battle in eastern Libya. Continue reading →

Share Button

‘Shameful’: Senate Votes to Further Arm Saudi Arabia as Yemen Suffers

Leave a reply

Bipartisan opposition to the bill nonetheless sent a “strong message” to the Saudis—and to President Trump

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-13-2017

Photo: Human Rights Watch

The Senate voted on Tuesday to approve a widely criticized $500 million sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, narrowly beating back a bipartisan effort to block the deal.

The final tally was 53-47 in favor of the sale, which is just part of a massive $100 billion arms package.

Among the sponsors of the resolution put forth to block the sale was Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who argued that despite the opposition’s defeat, the effort nonetheless sent a “strong message” to Saudi Arabia. Continue reading →

Share Button

As Trump Pushes Massive Saudi Weapons Deal, Yemenis Suffer from Cholera, War, and Famine

Leave a reply

One possible outcome of Trump’s visit could be a green light to attack the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, where the bulk of the humanitarian aid enters Yemen

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-19-2017

Cholera patients line the halls of Yemen’s few medical facilities, less than 45 percent of which are fully functional after two years of war. (Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/IRIN News)

President Donald Trump will arrive in Saudi Arabia on Friday bearing a major arms deal for the Gulf kingdom, which observers warn will swiftly then be used against the people of Yemen, who are currently facing a deadly cholera outbreak, devastating famine, and two years of war that shows no sign of abating.

In exchange for the $110 billion package, said to be the largest arms deal in history, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has offered “to invest at least $200 billion in American infrastructure and open up new business opportunities for U.S. companies inside the kingdom,” according to Alternet‘s Max Blumenthal, a move that is expected to win the U.S. president points in the rust belt states of Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Continue reading →

Share Button

How Europe Is Getting Rich by Fueling Its Own Terror Epidemic

Leave a reply

By Darius Shahtahmasebi. Published 8-3-2016 by The Anti-Media

Though Europe do not have the rates of gun violence the United States continues to grapple with, European governments have made over a billion euros by fueling gun violence in the Middle East and North Africa.

A report conducted by a team of reporters from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found a group of European nations has been funneling arms into the Middle East region since 2012, making at least 1.2 billion euros in the process. Continue reading →

Share Button

3 Facts That Will Change Everything You Believe About U.S. Foreign Policy

Leave a reply

By Nick Bernabe. Published 5-27-2016 by The Anti-Media

The United States has the world’s most powerful military — and a huge budget to match it. In fact, the U.S. spends more on defense than the next seven countries’ budgets military combined. America’s navy has been branded a “Global Force for Good,” and U.S. military operations around the world are sold to the public as freedom-by-force operations (see: Operation Iraqi Freedom).

But what is the truth about America’s foreign policy? Is America truly a benevolent empire hell-bent on raining democracy-by-drone strike around the world? To answer this question, we looked at America’s arms global deals and came to a rather disappointing  conclusion. Continue reading →

Share Button

Purveyors of Global Violence, US Continues to Lead World Arms Trade

Leave a reply

Topping the list of those on the receiving end of these deals are Middle East allies, including Saudi Arabia

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-22-2016

A joint weapons training exercise on how to operate an M67 120mm mortar system with the Royal Saudi Naval Forces and U.S. Marines. (U.S. Marine Corps photos by Gunnery Sgt. Rome M. Lazarus/Released)

A joint weapons training exercise on how to operate an M67 120mm mortar system with the Royal Saudi Naval Forces and U.S. Marines. (U.S. Marine Corps photos by Gunnery Sgt. Rome M. Lazarus/Released)

The U.S. weapons industry continues to lead the world as the greatest supplier of major arms and munitions, according to an authoritative analysis, fueling the global violence and turmoil that has soared to unprecedented levels in recent years.

The report (pdf), put forth by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday, found that the U.S. continues to dominate the global arms trade, driving 33 percent of total exports between 2011 and 2015. Continue reading →

Share Button

Saudis Drop US Bombs on Ambulance in Yemen

Leave a reply

By Claire Bernish. Published 1-22-2016 by The Anti-Media

Saudi air attack in Yemen using US manufactured cluster weapons (which are banned) Image: Amnesty international/Twitter

Saudi air attack in Yemen using US manufactured cluster weapons (which are banned) Image: Amnesty international/Twitter

Saada, Yemen — In the latest of a mounting number of similar cases, a Saudi airstrike killed at least eighteen people on Thursday — including a Doctors Without Borders/Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF)-affiliated ambulance that had just arrived on the scene to aid victims from a previous strike.

It should be noted the Saudi-led coalition has been accused multiple times, including less than two weeks ago, of employing U.S.-made weapons — including internationally-banned cluster bombs — to attack civilians. The U.S., itself, has been waging a heavy drone campaign in the war-ravaged nation — two people were killed on Tuesday by a U.S. drone — and a report in September proved U.S. drones have been responsible for more civilian deaths than even al-Qaeda. Continue reading →

Share Button

Despite Atrocities, US Approves $1.29 Billion Deal to Re-Arm Saudi Arabia

Leave a reply

‘It is illegal under US and international law to transfer weapons to human rights abusers, or to forces that will likely use it to commit gross violations of human rights.’

By Sarah Lazare, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 11-17-2015

A Paveway laser-guided bomb, built by Raytheon beneath an RAF Harrier GR9. (Photo: MoD/Crown Copyright)

A Paveway laser-guided bomb, built by Raytheon beneath an RAF Harrier GR9. (Photo: MoD/Crown Copyright)

The Pentagon announced on Monday that the U.S. has approved a $1.29 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, despite widespread mounting evidence of the country’s mass atrocities and possible war crimes in neighboring Yemen.

The U.S. State Department on Friday approved the sale of over 10,000 bombs, munitions, and weapons parts produced by Boeing and Raytheon. This includes 5,200 Paveway II “laser guided” and 12,000 “general purpose” bombs. “Bunker Busters,” also included in the deal, are designed to destroy concrete structures. Continue reading →

Share Button