India is second in U.S arms transfer

India is second in US arms transfer during 2006-2009 period, while Saudi Arabia is the leading developing world arms purchaser from 2002-2009, an independent bi-partisan Congressional report has said. CRS is the independent bi-partisan research wing of the US Congress, which prepares periodic reports on various issues for Congressmen. The CRS said in the 2002-2005 period, India ranked first in arms transfer agreements at USD 15.3 billion. "These increases reflect the military modernisation efforts by both Saudi Arabia and India, underway since the 1990s," the CRS told lawmakers adding that the total value of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations from 2002-2009 was USD 262.3 billion. This total constituted 17.2 per cent of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations during these four years (USD 171.5 billion). India ranked second in arms transfer agreements during 2006-2009 with USD 17.1 billion (in current dollars), or about 10 per cent of the value of all developing world arms-transfer agreements, the report said. CRS told Congressmen that India, while the principal Russian arms customer, has begun to diversify its weapons supplier base, purchasing the Phalcon early warning defense system aircraft in 2004 from Israel and numerous items from France in 2005, in particular 6 Scorpene diesel attack submarines.In 2008, India purchased 6 C130J cargo aircraft from the US. This pattern of Indian arms purchases indicates that it is likely that Russian will face strong new competition from other major weapons suppliers for the India arms market, the report said.