By Zhang Chi and Guo Liang
Wall Street Journal reported that US Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks recently signed a memo approving the formation of a special workforce called Tiger Team to look into the low efficiency of American sales of expensive military equipment to other countries, and further simplify the arms sales process. The team is co-headed by Sasha Baker, US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, and William LaPlante, its undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, and its members are from various services of the US military and the DoD.
Generally speaking, the Pentagon’s formation of a special team overseeing outbound arms sales is driven by three strategic considerations.
First, it’s an overture to the military-industrial enterprises. In the US, the military-industrial complex centered with military-industrial enterprises is a gigantic and weighty presence. Every winning presidential candidate has a group of military-industrial supporters standing behind him. American website Open Secrets reported that American military-industrial enterprises have spent as much as US $2.5 billion lobbying in the past 20 years in order to sway the defense policy and make their arms and ammunition desirable. A report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) showed that the world’s top five military-industrial enterprises are all based in the US since 2018. US DoD’s formation of a special agency this time is largely to send overtures to them under the name of improving the efficiency of arms sales.
Second, it is to suppress potential rivals. Russia has always been America’s strong competitor in the global arms trade, and Washington hopes to defeat the rival and benefit its own military-industrial groups through war and other means. The newly established tiger team is aimed at using military resources to increase arms sales. In fact, the Pentagon is peddling American weapons for the tycoons. A senior official at the Pentagon said without mincing words that the DoD formed the tiger team to counter potential rival’s influence in the field of arms sales.
Third, it is to rope in allies. It is generally believed that the US is selling so many weapons to foreign countries and regions for the main purpose of tightening the bond with its allies through Americanized weapons, till one day interfering in their military development. Wall Street Journal commented that the tiger team will help Pentagon sell weapons to foreign countries more quickly, and make coveted American drones, guns, helicopters, tanks and other weaponry available to partners and allies faster. In short, the new team is aimed at reinforcing the diplomatic and strategic functions of outbound arms sales to draw closer the allies and facilitate America’s meddling in hotspot regions.
It’s foreseeable that the formation of the tiger team will have a series of consequences.
On the one hand, it will widen the domestic rift. Former US President Eisenhower warned in his farewell speech that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex”. The Pentagon’s formation of the arms sales supervision team under the influence of military-industrial enterprises is sure to trigger chain effects across the country. Wall Street Journal commented that, for many years, US house members, military-industrial enterprises and government officials have all believed in avoiding risks and slowing the steps in selling weapons, and deals involving sensitive technologies would usually be postponed for many years. Next, the conflict between the Pentagon and US Congress – the executor and authorizer of outbound arms sales plans – will surely escalate.
On the other hand, it will jeopardize the security environment. SIPRI’s report showed that the global volume of arms trade between 2017 and 2021 dropped compared with the previous five-year period, but America’s weapon export increased 14% in the same period with its global share rising from 32% to 39%. Going forward, the US may continue to roil the waters in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East with the excuse of tackling “strategic threats from major countries” and “defusing regional crisis”. It may also, by leveraging its hegemony, using political interests and suppressing rivals, entice or even coerce European countries, Japan, ROK, Saudi Arabia, Israel and other regional allies and partners to buy more American weapons and equipment, which will aggravate the regional arms race.
