U.S., Western Allies Should Look to ‘Friendshoring’ Defense Production in the Middle East: Report

To ease the burden on US and Western defense industrial bases and fill supply chain gaps, officials should look to “friendshoring” some defense production to allies in the Middle East, according to a new report.

“[T]here is a unique opportunity now to enhance the capacity of our partners in the Middle East, and thus our collective capacity as well,” the report states.

The report, published Wednesday by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, says the West should look to Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in particular, and take “crawl, walk, run” approach to benefit from untapped Middle East potential.

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“Our Middle East partners have all expressed the need to bolster their capabilities to defend themselves. They have also significantly increased their defense spending. The United States can help accelerate these positive trends by supporting our partners in developing and maintaining sufficient defense production capacity, resilient supply chains, and access to technology,” the report says.

From a strategic perspective, the report highlights the significance of coproduction with these countries to face shared adversaries.

“Iran’s capacity and willingness to endanger the regional order is abetted by China, Russia, and North Korea, each of whom wants to divert U.S. attention and assets back into the Middle East and away from its own doorstep. By the same token, stoking conflicts that unleash violent extremism and waves of refugees threatens to undermine America’s partners in the Middle East, Europe, and elsewhere,” says the report.

It also highlighted that boosting defense coproduction with these states will reinforce US regional role.

Defense coproduction intiatives “are also complementary to our ongoing regional diplomatic efforts, and would build upon the Abraham Accords, support Israel-Saudi normalization, and enhance security and stability while making America’s regional presence more sustainable,” said the report.

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Read the full piece in Breaking Defense.