Yemen as arms dealer

[drg]

After reading the thread on the Ethiopian army hre on defensetalk, i decided to look up the deal between Yemen and Ethiopia for the T-72s. I found much to my surprise, on a site called dehai.org, that Yemen was supposed to have bought 300 T-72s from Russia, and offered them to both Sudan and Djibouti.
I am wondering if this is logically possible, as I am constantly reading about the precarious nature of Yemen and it's economy.
Also, I didn't read or see anything on the recent conflict in Sudan that would suggest they had T-72s.
The question I suppose is (and i hope its a moderator approved one after my last few posts) has Yemen been a participant in any other arms contracts, other than the possible procurement of Scud-C (or is it B?) from North Korea, and how would they achieve this considering their economy and internal security problems.
I have a huge interest in non-superpower procurement, hence the nature of the question (i don't really care for nuclear or chemical weapons). My hobby is collecting information on international arms deals stretching from 1990 to the present, so any information regarding Yemen would be greatly appreciated.
I suppose the most logical place to start would be the conflict in Somalia, though i'm not 100% sure.
Any thoughts?

 

[Rich]

Remember that boatload of SCUDs we stopped that was en route to Yemen from North Korea? We had to let it go, even tho we knew it was probably going to be resold to someone, because we had no real Legal right to stop the sale. So if a SCUD with sarin is ever launched from a tramp steamer into NYNY I guess we can comfort ourselves with Lawyers gibberish.

They are great traders, the Yemenis. They have been going back thousands of years. Geographically they are well placed to do good business in the region thru maritime trade. Ive never been to Yemen and have no inclination to do so. On one hand they have a fairly legit elected government for the region, tho complicated and shared with a powerful theocracy. On the other hand Tribal/family ties extend throughout the peninsula and are far more powerful then any Government and the place is lawless far more then say Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has always been a hub for arms sales and support for Al Qaeda. Presumably less so since our armies cut a swathe thru Iraq, murdered Saddams sons, and then strung him and his cronies on a rope. Everyone is quick to badmouth our Iraq operation, but believe me, that type of thing is a Language people over there can understand. Actually Yemeni cooperation goes farther back then that, to shortly after 9/11. The terr's who bombed the USS Cole operated out of Yemen. There has been some positives coming out of the relationship even if 99% of Americans cant understand the power of tribal/family ties with these people.

Much of the money, volunteers, and arms that is financing the genocide against the non-Muslim populations of the Sudan, by both the Sudanese regulars and the Janjaweed, is being funneled thru Yemen. There have been recent Intelligence reports Linking Al Qaeda to the training and support of the janjaweed. http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/07/intelligence_report_links_janj.php And there are other sources if one cares to look.

But I dont want to say anything disparaging. I certainly dont want anyone to call me a "bigot" again.

 

[drg]

Bigot?

Okay i'm not going to go there.
The only information i could find on Yemen was that it was seeking TOW missiles a while back (yeah, chances of that going through ).
Thanks for the help Rich.

 

[contedicavour]

Okay i'm not going to go there.
The only information i could find on Yemen was that it was seeking TOW missiles a while back (yeah, chances of that going through ).
Thanks for the help Rich.

Yemen bought a few years ago several Russian jets though I can't remember if it was MIG29 or SU27. A big batch, something like 48.
It has a big arsenal of both former Soviet and Western weaponry dating back to the pre-1991 separate governments of Soviet-supported South and Western-supported North. No wonder it can afford to sell 50 T72s to Ethiopia...

cheers

 

[Turk]

I don't think yemen going to buy so many arms

 

[Sgt.Banes]

I don't think yemen going to buy so many arms

I don't think it will serve as an arms dealer or buyer, if a rouge regime or terrorist group wants weapons they will turn to Eastern Europe or East Africa.

 

[drg]

I think those were Mig-29s, contedicavour

My analysis indicates that Yemen has approximately 66 MiG-29s, and is receiving 32 MiG-29 SMTs from Russia.

 

[Turk]

Althogh Yemen is buying these weapons I am seeing they are still weak.They have no aims or goals in their area.

 

[swerve]

I don't think it will serve as an arms dealer or buyer, if a rouge regime or terrorist group wants weapons they will turn to Eastern Europe or East Africa.

Rouge? Face powder? nfloorl:

Sorry, mate, but that was an irresistible typo. At least, when I've just got home from the pub.

 

[contedicavour]

Althogh Yemen is buying these weapons I am seeing they are still weak.They have no aims or goals in their area.

An air force with 60+ Mig29s (new or modernized) is quite strong, and its army is heavily equipped with Soviet era heavy MBTs. Enough to defend itself... especially as its neighbors aren't exactly threantening (Saudi, Oman, and across the Red Sea Eritrea and Somaliland).

What is surprising is that technically the northern yemenese regime won the "cold" war when the southern bit was left alone by the post-soviet Russia. However when you look at the weaponry of today's Yemen armed forces most material and new acquisition is Russian

cheers

 

[suddendeath]

Attack Su-22, F-5, Mi-24
Fighter MiG-29, F-7, MiG-21,
Trainer Zlin 242, Yak-11, L-39
Transport C-130, Il-76, An-12, An-26, Mi-8 from what i found and mig29

 

[kato]

Old one, but if someone brings the thread up now:

What is surprising is that technically the northern yemenese regime won the "cold" war when the southern bit was left alone by the post-soviet Russia. However when you look at the weaponry of today's Yemen armed forces most material and new acquisition is Russian

Yemen supported Iraq when it invaded Kuwait, and was under a weapons embargo by western nations from 1990 until 2004 (lifted when the US wanted to do anti-terror operations within Yemen). So it's no wonder that Yemen relies on Russian equipment.

 

[ROCK45]

China & Sudan

Hello drg
You mention below in your your post you have

I have a huge interest in non-superpower procurement

In Sudan they might have Russian tanks and equipment from past purchases but currently I think it's all Chinese. China has like 4,000 troops there currently protecting there oil interests. Below is a link to a youtube clip showing a large amount of Chinese made equipment. Tanks, SP, APC, etc

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1dZBHHAOGg"]YouTube - Sudan army tanks - Military parade[/ame]

 

[ROCK45]

More China & Africa topics

Near the the bottom you'll see where it says there are 4,000 Chinese troops in Sudan. I wanted to provide a link to my above post since I stated that China has troops in Sudan.


http://www.tribune.com.ng/19122007/Midweek.html

 

[drg]

Yep

Yeah, I was just checking out the Sudanese MIC (Millitary Industrial Complex) website the other day, and on it were copies of Iranian equipment (T-72Z 'Safir', 'Boragh' and 'Raksh'), Russian equipment (BTR-80, AK-47 and RPG-7), Chinese equipment (Type-85, small arms etc) and even German equipment (MP-5 and G-4 LMG).
I've also read that Malaysia, North Korea and Belarus are involved in arming Sudan, but i don't know what they've sold to Sudan (yet...).