DUBAI - Saudi Arabia and the UAE are looking to buy unmanned aerial vehicles from U.S. arms manufacturer Northrop Grumman for border patrols and fighting sea pirates, UAE daily the National reported on Wednesday.The two are interested in the company’s Fire Scout unmanned helicopter rather than the type of drones the U.S. military uses in attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq, the newspaper reported.
“I think the UAE sees the value proposition of the aeroplane, with its demonstrated performance,” Gene Fraser, a company vice president, told the newspaper.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the world’s major weapons buyers, making them attractive to major arms exporters.
U.S. firm Lockheed Martin Corp said recently it hopes to sell $7 billion worth of missile defence systems to the UAE.
Proposed Saudi arms purchases from Russia could total at least $2 billion and likely go as high as $7 billion, according to reports.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ranks the UAE as third globally in foreign military goods procurement, with only China and India buying more arms from 2004 to 2008.