BUB: Arms Trade

The Battle Update Brief gives you a whirlwind tour of the Arms Trade

The Chinese are flipping their lids over the US agreement to sell missiles to Taiwan.

The Defense Department has approved the sale of upgraded missile equipment to Taiwan, a Taipei-based US official said on Thursday, risking the ire of the island's rival China.

The sale of the Patriot missile equipment is part of a package passed by the US Congress more than a year ago, said a spokesman with the American Institute in Taiwan, the US de facto embassy in the absence of formal ties.

'The US Defense Department awarded Lockheed Martin Corp the contract to provide Patriot missile defence systems to Taiwan as part of a big arms deal approved by Congress in 2008,' the spokesman told AFP.

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A wannabe arms dealer in Virginia has pled guilty to trying to smuggle weapons to some places he really shouldn't have.

A Virginia company run by a would-be arms merchant pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to sell guns, night vision goggles and other military equipment to people in Yemen, Libya and other foreign countries.

Ioannis "John" Papathanassiou, 51, of Vienna, Va., entered the guilty plea on behalf of his company, Taipan Enterprises Ltd., at a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court, admitting that his company sought to broker arms deals without a license.

The company was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine, the amount recommended by prosecutors.

Papathanassiou's company was never actually able to sell any equipment, despite several years of effort.

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The Federation of American Scientists has a few things to say about US transparency in arms sales.

Transparency is essential for effective congressional and public oversight of the arms trade, and the US government is widely (and rightly) praised for its reporting on arms exports. Yet there is also significant room for improvement. Reporting on US arms exports and international arms transfers funded or authorized by the US government is often incomplete, unclear and hampered by overly aggregated data.

The downloadable PDF at the link has a series of recommendations for US policy.

By: Brant