The advanced jet fighters and helicopters for Saudi Arabia, long a leading customer for these weapons, could become the largest arms deal in American history, and one significant enough to shift the region’s balance of power over the course of a decade.
The key element of the sale would be scores of new F-15 combat aircraft, along with more than 175 attack and troop-transport helicopters and, if subsequent negotiations are successful, ships and antimissile defenses. The deal has been put together in quiet consultations with Israel, which has sought assurances that it will retain its technological edge over Saudi forces, even as Saudi Arabia improves its ability to face down a shared rival, the Iranians.
“We want Iran to understand that its nuclear program is not getting them leverage over their neighbors, that they are not getting an advantage,” a senior administration official said Friday, describing the Saudi sale as part of a broader regional strategy in which the United States has bolstered antimissle defenses in Arab states along the Persian Gulf. “We want the Iranians to know that every time they think they will gain, they will actually lose.”
Though the timing appears coincidental, Congress will likely be formally notified of the proposed sale in the coming days, during a visit to the United States by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Mr. Ahmadinejad has used his annual visit to address the United Nations General Assembly as a moment to denounce the United States and proclaim that Iran’s nuclear program is entirely peaceful, though this month international weapons inspectors said they had been stonewalled on important questions about Iranian work on warhead designs.
When the arms sale plan is formally sent to Congress, that will start a 30-day clock for it to consider the issue. There is little question it will go forward — the administration is already talking about how many jobs it will create in Congressional districts around the country — but several members of Congress have already expressed reservations about whether it would erode Israel’s military edge.
Administration officials would not discuss the proposed sale on the record because the pre-notification negotiations with Congressional committees were still under way. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal on Tuesday, projected that the value could top $60 billion. But officials involved in the planning said a firm estimate remained impossible because the sale would unfold in phases and would be likely to change along the way as weapons packages, battlefield-management systems and service contracts were decided.
Saudi Arabia has over the decades been the largest purchaser of American arms, with a package for advanced-radar aircraft and associated command systems in the early 1980s worth about $7.5 billion. That was followed in the early 1990s by a deal for jet fighters and support systems that cost nearly $10 billion, according to government records. Another gulf partner that serves as a front line against Iran, the United Arab Emirates, has also purchased significant amounts of American weapons, in particular air-defense systems.
In the past, Israel has often regarded those sales with suspicion. But in recent years, the standoff with Iran has changed the regional dynamics. Officials from Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates describe their perceptions of the threat from Iran in very similar terms.
Since coming to office, Mr. Obama and his top officials have hinted at extending the American defense umbrella over much of the Persian Gulf, in hopes of preventing other states in the region, including the Saudi Arabia, from seeking nuclear arms of their own. The sale of conventional weapons, the theory goes, helps persuade Saudia Arabia and other Arab states that they could deter Iranian ambitions, even without their own nuclear capability.
There is an added benefit for the American military, in addition to helping regional partners bolster their defenses with weapons that cannot be matched by Iran. The purchase of these American combat systems and related military support, including American trainers, would allow the United States armed forces to operate seamlessly in that part of the world, according to Pentagon officials.
“We are helping these allied and partner nations create their own containment shield against Iran,” said an American military officer. “It is a way of deterring Iran, but helpful to us in so many other ways.”
A senior Defense Department official said the proposed sale would include 84 new F-15s and an agreement to modernize 70 of Saudi Arabia’s older F-15s to that same upgraded configuration. The official said Saudi Arabia was expected to retire its older aircraft as the new and upgraded warplanes arrived, so that over the next 5 or 10 years the Saudi Air Force would be far more capable, but not larger in number.
In addition, the weapons package would include 70 Apache attack helicopters, 72 Black Hawk troop-transport helicopters and 36 Little Bird helicopters. The Little Bird is a small, agile helicopter used by American Special Operations forces for surveillance, as well as for inserting or extracting small numbers of combat troops quickly and surreptitiously.
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