Nov 20 (Reuters) - Tighter military budgets in the
United States and around the world have put a huge focus on
coalitions and burden-sharing in forming responses to future
conflicts and disasters, senior U.S. officials said at the Dubai
Airshow.
Heidi Grant, Air Force deputy undersecretary for
international affairs, said the need to work together more
closely on everything from aerial refueling to intelligence
gathering was a recurrent theme during her meetings with over
half of the 30 air chiefs who attended the show.
"As the Department of Defense budgets become smaller, I'm
seeing partners stepping up even more and more, looking at how
they can help mitigate potential capability risk areas," Grant
told Reuters in an interview.
"There's a huge demand out there. People realize that none of
us are going to be able to go it alone," she said.
Grant said foreign military sales played an increasingly
important role in U.S. foreign policy since budget cuts would
make it more difficult for the U.S. military to take the lead in
as many simultaneous situations as it had in the past.
"Foreign military sales and security cooperation ... used to
be something that the U.S. looked at as a nice thing to do. Now
it is a major tool," she said.
At the time of the NATO strikes on
Libya in March 2011, U.S.
forces were involved in five separate operations across the
globe, but that would be impossible as budgets dropped, she
said, noting other countries would have to step up more.
"We realize that we've got to be with a coalition, and we
want a capable coalition," she said.
Grant
is part of a large delegation of U.S. government and military officials
who came to the biggest-ever Dubai air show this week to underscore
Washington's commitment to security cooperation in the Gulf, at a time
when U.S. talks with
Iran have unsettled some long-time U.S. allies such as
Saudi Arabia.
A dozen U.S. fighters, helicopters and other warplanes were
on display at the show, with two Marine Corps V-22 tiltrotor
aircraft taking potential buyers for demonstration flights.
A few miles away at Dubai's busy port the USS Harry S.
Truman - its flight deck jammed with F/A-18 Super Hornets and
older "Baby Hornets" - hosted a reception for over 700 guests as
they discussed foreign sales of U.S. equipment.
"Whatever concerns our partners may have had about the
negotiations with the Iranians, the fact that we're all showing
up here says we are not turning on a dime," said a U.S.
official. "The Gulf is and remains a really important region."
AS STRONG AS EVER
U.S. executives and government delegates said they had not seen any signs of waning demand from
Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf, despite political tensions over the United States' handing of the crisis in
Syria, its response to a military takeover in
Egypt and fresh talks with
Iran.
"Our relationship ... is as strong as it's ever been," said
Patrick Dewar, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin
International.
The many weapons sales discussed at the show included
fighter jets sales to Gulf countries, missile defense deals and
a modernization of the Saudi Arabian navy.
Grant said she also encouraged any allies looking at
Boeing
Co's C-17 transport plane to act soon since the company
plans to stop making it in 2015.
Boeing has already finished the last C-17 to be built for
the U.S. military and is still looking to finalize orders for
the final 13 aircraft to be built at the plant.
"If they want one of those aircraft, they better speak up
now," Grant said, noting the expense of restarting production.
Dennis Muilenburg, who heads Boeing's defense
business, this
week said the decision to shut the C-17 line was final.
A buzz word at the show was "interoperability" - the ability
of different weapons systems and different countries to work
together during combined operations or exercises.
The U.S. military has struggled over the past decade to beef
up its own ability to communicate and share data in real-time
across the four military services, and similar efforts have been
underway in NATO for years.
At an air chiefs conference in Dubai on Saturday, officials
from around the world expressed interest in expanding those
efforts to additional regions and partners.
Grant said Air Force Lieutenant General John Hesterman, who
heads U.S. Air Forces Central Command, planned to bring Gulf air
chiefs together to see what equipment and other changes were
needed to ensure better military cooperation.
Boeing's Muilenburg said his company had designed its
warplanes with a so-called "open architecture" that would make
it easier to communicate across different militaries.
"It's a very big area for us. That's part of what we try to
design into our airplanes," he said.