There are many ways to measure the Persian Gulf military balance, but one key indicator is to look at the relative size of Persian Gulf military expenditures and the size and nature of Gulf arms imports and transfers of military technology.
The Burke Chair has prepared a detailed comparison of key estimates of both military spending and arms transfers, drawing upon official sources as well as the work of key research centers like the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
This report is entitled Military Spending and Arms Sales in the Gulf: How the Persian Gulf States Now Dominate the Changes in the Military Balance, and is available on the CSIS web site here. It provides a wide range of tables and charts describing the patterns in military spending and arms transfers both in comparative dollar terms and by major weapons system and transfer of military technology.
The summary data show that the Persian Gulf states have a decisive advantage over Iran in both the size of their recent military spending and the size and quality of their arms transfers and imports of military technology.
What is most striking, however, is the growing level of sophistication in Persian Gulf arms and related weapons technology at a time when Iran is facing major constraints on its military modernization due to the limits to its military spending and the impact of sanctions and other political constraints on its access to arms.
Military Spending and Arms Sales in the Persian Gulf (342 downloads)
