Saudi Arabia is the notorious sponsor and source of inspiration for
much of Islamic violence in the wider Middle East, staging military and
financial interventions in order to create stronger salafist influence.
Internally, the country has a repressive policy against women and
minorities which is amongst the worst in the world. But Saudi Arabia is
also spending billions of its oil dollars on arms, making it the third or fourth military spender in the world (depending on calculation method used).
Last week Riyadh declared that the building of four naval vessels by Lockheed Martin in the US is too expensive
– between 3 and 4 billion US$ each - and goes too slow (it can take up
to seven years). The statement can be seen as part of the negotiations
over price and schedule of the ships. The Saudi acquisition is part of a
US$ 20 billion programme to refresh the ageing U.S.-built Saudi fleet
operating in the Persian Gulf, according to a State Department notification issued in October. Shortly after the Saudi complaint Lockheed could rescedule and build quicker.
According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA
) 532 Raytheon Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) will be sold to the
Saudi's as part of the programme. Here the involvement of Netherlands
starts. The country participates in the NATO Sea Sparrow Consortium since the beginning e.g. through Fokker and Thales. Most of the Sea Sparrow project concerns sea launched missiles but a 2012 arms fair showed Fokker and Thales involvement
in some land based Sea Sparrows. The last two Sea Sparrow contracts,
reported on the website of the US Ministry of Defense, the mentioned the
Dutch as producers. October 30, 2015 a contract was issued valued at € 15.3 million, of which 60 percent by the the Sea Sparrow Consortium. An April 2, 2015
contract for Sea Sparrow Block 2 missile engineering and manufacturing
development (EMD) requirements was issued for $517,300,000 (€ 474.7m).
The Netherlands will pay for 5 percent of this contract and perform 3
percent of the work. The result in real figures is € 14 million.
Research institute TNO also played a role in the work on the missile and
developped the system which provide the data to optimise raid annihilation.
The Sea Sparrow sales can also be found in the monthly arms export
reports by the Dutch government. In 2014 (the latest published) three
exports to Denmark of Sea Sparrow components are reported, one to the
United Arab Emirates, and one to the VS. Together the exports are valued
at € 8.1 million. But the rather vague description 'technology for
guided missiles' [Technologie voor geleide raketten] is also used in the
reports so the conclusion it is likely many more are under-reported but
took place.
The Fokker Special Products website makes no secret of Sea Sparrows technology production. The Supplier Quality Assurance Requirements Fokker
has signed – regarding selling Sea Sparrow components – states: “Full
traceability of the supply chain shall be guaranteed and be proven by
the paperwork.” So it can be known in which missiles for which
destination the components are assembled. It enables the Dutch
government to control if sales have the destination Saudi Arabia. But
such action is not to be expected, because it is antagonising the US and
our ally in Riyadh. A new sale of weapon components to Saudi Arabia is
in the making. And will the Netherlands follow the German example where
words are nice but policy wrong. Or will it be stopped?
Martin Broek 28/01/2016
