British newspaper "Financial Times" revealed today Sunday that Saudi Arabia continues to buy weapons despite the economic crisis it is going through and the austerity measures it announced last May.
A newspaper report said that the government informed the concerned officials that the arms deals were continuing as usual and without any change.
Two days after Riyadh announced austerity measures, the defense wing of the US "Boeing" company was awarded contracts worth $ 2.6 billion to provide the Kingdom with more than 1,000 surface-to-air and anti-ship missiles.
The newspaper quoted experts as saying that the aforementioned arms sales are "part of long-term agreements, and that they are evidence that one of the world's largest arms importers is still spending on defense," referring to Saudi Arabia.
In turn, Lockheed Martin reported that it has not experienced a decline in defense spending by any of its major clients in the Middle East.
It is noteworthy that "Lockheed Martin" is an American company that manufactures weapons and provides Riyadh with missile defense systems "THAAD".
Middle East CEO Robert Harware said it was too early to tell if budgetary pressures would be transferred to the defense sector, but he expected the company's customers, including Saudi Arabia, to continue their purchases.
We will spare no resource
and the Financial Times quoted another executive from a Gulf arms manufacturer as saying that his company had "not witnessed any shift in attitudes from clients".
Analysts also expected sales of expensive new weapons to witness some restrictions, if reductions were to be made, according to the newspaper.
For its part, the Saudi Ministry of Finance assured the newspaper that the kingdom will continue to support its military needs, and will spare no resources to defend its people and land.
The ministry said it is working to rationalize spending to ensure the kingdom gets defense equipment at the appropriate cost for the right amount and the appropriate specifications.
In 2019, the military expenditures for Saudi Arabia amounted to 198 billion riyals ($ 52.8 billion), a decrease of 18.3% from the year 2018. Riyadh attributed this decrease to the improvement of purchases and planning, not to a decrease in financing.
Independent analysts said Saudi Arabia's defense spending over the past year was in fact much higher.