Research group highlights "destabilizing" role of combat aircraft

Nov 10, 2010, 15:31 GMT

Stockholm - Combat aircraft constitute a sizeable portion of the global arms trade and pose a potentially destabilizing role, a Swedish research institute said in a new report Wednesday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) study estimated that combat aircraft accounted for about a third of global arms transfers during the period 2005-2009.

'While combat aircraft are often presented as one of the most important weapons needed for defence, these same aircraft give countries possessing them the potential to easily and with little warning strike deep into neighbouring countries,' SIPRI researcher Siemon Wezeman said.

Recent examples were the Israeli air attack on Syria in September 2007 and Russian attacks on Georgia in August 2008.

The three top importers of combat aircraft in the period were India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel. The report listed over 40 countries that bought new or used planes.

During the period, 995 planes were sold worldwide, of which a fourth were second-hand.

The study also observed that combat aircraft were part of the delivery systems for seven of the eight states with nuclear weapons, but this is not often mentioned when sales are discussed.

The United States and Russia were the main exporters, accounting for two-thirds of all combat aircraft sales in the period. In all only 11 countries make combat planes. The others include Britain, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, and Sweden.

More details available at www.sipri.org

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