EXCLUSIVE - U.S. arms sales hit record in 2009

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government-to-government arms sales rose 4.7 percent to a record $38.1 billion last year, and are expected to total almost as much in 2010, the Pentagon agency that administers them said on Friday.

Arms deals, often sensitive because of regional politics, may become even more so for the administration of President Barack Obama, who won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize last month.

Some critics say Obama should rein in arms transfers, partly to avoid regional arms races. But overseas sales are increasingly important to U.S. contractors seeking to offset Pentagon belt-tightening at home.

Many if not most of the sales pacts signed in fiscal 2009, which ended Sept. 30, are part of a boom in conventional weapons sales that started under former president George W. Bush.

The 2009 figures represent over a quadrupling from a sales "low point" in fiscal 1998, according to Vice Admiral Jeffrey Wieringa, head of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

The sales are indicative of a drive to strengthen U.S. partners and thus boost U.S. national security, Wieringa said in an Oct. 22 blog posting on his agency's website.

The 2009 tally, revised after that posting, were up from $36.4 billion in fiscal 2008 and $23.3 billion in 2007, said the security agency. It administers the Pentagon's Foreign Military Sales program, a key part of U.S. alliance-building.

Sales are expected to top $37.9 billion in fiscal 2010, which began Oct. 1, Vanessa Murray, an agency spokeswoman, said in a written reply to Reuters.