ARMS BUSINESS BIGGER THAN EVER

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32315, 5 June 1970, Page 13

ARMS BUSINESS BIGGER THAN EVER

(By FRANK OLIVER, special correspondent N.Z.P A.)

WASHINGTON. There was a time, just before the First World War, when the big dealers in arms were looked on as merchants of death. Times have changed. The arms business is bigger than ever and is big business and is engaged in less by individuals than by governments.

The United States Govern-: ment seems to be on the! point of selling more fighter plans to Israel.! The Soviet Government has; been selling MiGs and S.A.M.' missiles to Egypt The! United States is selling! fighter planes to Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Columbia. The French Government is following up its sale of Mirage fighters to Libya by the sale of others to Spain and Brazil. The British Government is hoping to make additional sales of V.S.T.O.L. aircraft to the United States to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

In the 25 years since the

lend of World War IL about !566,000m worth of conven- | tional arms have moved ■into the world market and I of this total United States sales account for almost 550.000. There is no sign that the market is slackening off. The United States really got going in the arms sale lousiness through its military 'aid programmes to a whole host of countries during the period of the Cold War and in addition, says the magazine, “Business Week," Washington has also mounted “an aggressive campaign I to sell arms abroad.” This has resulted in a considerable amount of critiicism in Congress as well as a measure of it in the press and, it is reported in the press, the Pentagon is tending to unload the job on to private arms firms. This seems to be highly satisfactory to American arms manufacturers and dealers because as the head of one such firm recently said, the private arms industry is really a joke Comi oared with the Government side of the business, “we iiust get a few crumbs from the master’s table.” This comes from a man whose

firm has in the recent past came close to doing slm dollars worth of arms business in the course of a year. In 1969 West Germany took $525m worth of American arms, Iran SlB4m. Japan sBlm, Australia sB4m, and so on down to s3m for New Zealand and a solitary Sim for Peru. Soviet shipments are believed to be now running at the rate of s2ooom a year, France Ssoom, Britain S3osm, and so on down to S2om for Sweden.

The press says that new guidelines for arms sales have been laid down by the State Department and under a new directive the Government will curb its active arms sales promotion and wait instead for customers to come to the counter to buy. However, adds the press, when they do ask embassies, Washington officials have free rein to encourage purchases direct from United States manufacturing companies. Control, of course, is exercised through official export licences.

An official of the Pentagon is quoted by “Business Week” as saying, “In view of the growing Congressional concern over United States arms

exports programmes, the Government is playing down its role and expecting industry to take up the slack. It’s more in keeping with the times.” Congress, of course, is taking a hand in the affair and how the new system will work out is not yet entirely clear. For instance, Congress is limiting grants for sale of arms to Latin America to s7sm a year while the ceiling for Africa is s4om. There are still prohibitions though they are not always clear. Prohibitions apply to so-called “sophisticated weapons” but what that means exactly is far from clear. One Pentagon official has said, “What’s sophisticated to Upper Volta clearly isn’t sophisticated to Argentina.” Sales of arms include various types of fighters, fighter bombers, military transport planes, tanks, some missiles, armoured personnel carriers and guided missile destroyers as well as smaller arms. More than 2200 Flo4s now fly in the air forces of some 14 nations and other fighters have been built or are being built for 16 nations. The United States has sold 8000 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and 2000 Sparrow air-to-air missiles, says “Business

Week” in a review of the whole arms business.

Congress appropriates $2500m a year to equip South Vietnamese, Thai and Laotian forces for use in the Indo-China war, and, the magazine adds, the United States Air Force in the coming fiscal year will buy more aircraft for export to SouthEast Asia than it will buy for itself.

Russia is deeply in the business too, selling or bartering arms to nations outside its own bloc as well as to nations of the Warsaw Pact North Vietnam gets rifles, tanks, MiGs, antiaircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. Press reports say this help has given the Hanoi regime one of the most formidable air-defence systems ever encountered by United States aircraft. Egypt gets almost as much arms help as Hanoi, it is reported, and more Russian help goes to India, Syria,. Algeria, Iraq and Cuba and, more recently to Jordan. Jordan is now getting Russian rifles, machineguns and anti-aircraft guns. Saudi Arabia, which hitherto has relied on Britain and the United States for arms, is also believed to be considering purchases from Moscow.

Russia is also reported to be trying to drum up arms business in Latin America and France and Britain are reported active in the same area. France has sold more fighter aircraft and helicopters to foreign nations than it has supplied to its own defence forces. Arms are now rated as 28 per cent of Britain’s total exports. These include arms to the Middle East, to Commonwealth countries,. and Canberra bombers to Peru and submarines to Brazil. West German sales of arms are reported to be going up with sales of tanks to Italy, Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands.

In this decade, say what seem reliable reports, Japan is expected to emerge as a big seller of arms. There appears to be more and more business for piore and more suppliers of arms. For instance, in 1955, no developing country had supersonic military aircraft, now about 30 nations have them. A dozen years ago no developing countries had long-range surface to air missiles but by 1968, 18 nations had them. As one newspaper comment says, “the trend seems clear.”