Arming the World

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Kremlin concentrates on supplying actual hardware and delivering it quickly; by contrast, related technical support systems account for 40% of American sales, and shipments take twice as long as the Soviets'. Thus the Soviets far surpass the U.S. in deliveries of specific major weapons. Since 1977 they have sent to the Third World about twice as many tanks (5,750 to 3,030), three times as many artillery pieces (7,150 to 2,780), four times as many fighter jets (2,290 to 540) and twice as many antiaircraft missiles (11,400 to 4,960).

Libya is Moscow's biggest, and most conspicuous, Third World client. On a visit to the Soviet capital this spring, Gaddafi ordered supplies for the jets that have been bombing the Sudanese border villages. New MiG-25 and Sukhoi Su-20 fighter planes were delivered earlier this year to Tripoli, where the docks are dotted with unopened crates of Soviet arms. Another major Soviet client is Syria. Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass visited Moscow last month to meet with his Soviet counterpart, Dmitri Ustinov, and the country's top weapons designers. Tlass discussed the purchase of more MiG-25s and a group of T-72 and T-80 tanks, the most sophisticated in the Soviet arsenal.

Increasingly, the Soviets sell arms for economic as well as strategic reasons.

Sales for hard currency to such clients as Libya, Syria and Algeria and, until recently, Iraq have almost entirely supplanted grants and sweetheart deals. The Central Intelligence Agency estimates that weapons sales bring in roughly one-fourth of the foreign currency earned by Moscow.

That trade also provides the U.S.S.R. with a commercial link to key oil producers —which may be one reason why it is trying to sell arms to Kuwait, a sheikdom with firm ties to the capitalist world. Even though they ask for hard cash, the Soviets usually price their wares well below comparable Western weapons.

The world's third major weapons exporter is France. The French have quality products, aggressive marketing skills and few qualms about selling anything to anyone who can pay. Sales agreements with the Third World leaped from $500 million in 1973 to $8 billion last year, thus making armaments the country's most lucrative industry. More than 100 salesmen worked for three years to land the contract to upgrade the Saudi navy, beating out competitive bids by the British and Italians. France argues that it provides Third World customers with an alternative to superpower suppliers. "Nations can buy from us and still maintain their independence," says an official of the missile maker Matra, which exports 75% of its production.

The election of Socialist President Francois Mitterrand initially was seen as a threat to the trade. He fired Gérard Hibon, chief of the Direction des Affaires Internationales, which handles overseas arms deals. Sales to South Africa, Chile and Argentina were discouraged because of those nations' domestic policies, and an unofficial ban was placed on future sales to Libya after its invasion of Chad, a former French colony. "Right now we're in a period of reflection," says a top govern ment minister. But Mitterrand by no means wants France out of the business: on a visit to Saudi Arabia last month he assured King Khalid that sales to the Persian Gulf region would continue. They discussed potential Saudi investment