US arms purchases failed to secure protection, report says Gulf states must rethink trillion-dollar defence in light of Iran war

Defence systems under scrutiny

The International Institute for Strategic Studies says Gulf states will need to reconfigure their defences after the war’s economic damage and attacks on the region. The study also questions the continuing value of US bases in the face of Iranian strikes.

It says Gulf countries’ trillion-dollar purchases of US weapons did not ensure protection at a critical moment. Their militaries, the report adds, are not adequately prepared for the attritional air warfare they now face.

Partnerships and public opinion

The study does not take a position on whether divided Gulf states should pursue a new non-aggression pact with Iran. It says, however, that the war has shown US security partnerships failed to provide adequate protection from Iranian aggression.

The report also describes a shift in Gulf public opinion about the US, from seeing it as a security provider to viewing it as a strategic liability. It warns that Iran could present any US force reduction or withdrawal as a strategic success and use it to embarrass Gulf governments over their longstanding pursuit of US protection.

Debate over US bases

The study follows comments by Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said the US military was debating whether to rebuild damaged bases in the Gulf. Murphy said rebuilding bases that could be destroyed quickly in another war would be a serious misuse of taxpayer money. He suggested the US might at least move its bases in the eastern Mediterranean farther from Iranian missiles.