Arms races in Middle East and Asia fuel Russian plans to increase arms sales to $50 billion per year in 2020s

Russia is ramping up arms sales across the middle east.

Russia is not just looking at arms sales to Iran but also to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is looking at buying the Iskander tactical ballistic missile system. This missile system purchase would include a launcher, a loader-transporter, a routine maintenance vehicle, a command post vehicle, an information post, an ammunition equipment set and training aids. The Iskander-M has a range of 400km, can carry a 700kg warhead of several varieties, and has a circular error probability of around five meters.

There is a middle east arms race with an estimated $18 billion of arms being purchased this year alone.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt are buying thousands of new US-made weapons, including missiles and bombs, to rebuild depleted arms stockpiles.

Conflicts are raging in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, and with Egypt also battling Islamist extremists in the Sinai.

Russia is targeting $50 billion per year in arms sales in 2020, which would be up from $13 billion in 2013.

India is a main buyer of Russian Weapons. India is likely to continue to increase imports of weapons to try to keep pace with the increasing military in China. China increases its military budget by about 10% each year.

Many countries are interested in buying Russia’s Su-35 fighter

China will buy 24 of them. Russia wanted to sell China 48 of them. Russia wanted a larger order because they know that after the first order, China will copy the fighter and make their own.

SOURCES – Al monitor, National Interest, Guardian UK, Pravda