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Morocco - Defense Budget

Morocco's defense budget doubled in size between 2005 and 2009. This development comes as the government supported a series of new arms acquisitions that will allow the country to maintain a balance of power with neighboring Algeria. Over the past three years, Morocco has ordered the F-16 multi-role fighter and T-6A air trainer from the United States as well frigates from the Netherlands.

The con?ict over the Western Sahara complicated U.S. relations with all the states in the region. The United States consistently supported an end to the war through negotiation between all the concemed parties that would lead to a cease-fire and an eventual referendum of the inhabitants of the Western Sahara as to its future status. While the United States recognized Morocco's administrative control over the Western Sahara, it did not endorse Morocco's claim of sovereignty over the area. From 1976 to 1978, Moroccan use of U.S.~supplied arms and equipment in the Western Sahara brought official U.S. protests and a partial arms embargo. Congressional criticism further exacerbated US relations with Morocco. However, when the Polisario launched small scale attacks into Morocco proper in 1979, President Carter made a determination that permitted the sale of arms "that could find use in the Western Sahara." Fol1owing this Presidential determiination, U.S. arms sales to Morocco were approved to help maintain the balance in the region and to counter the increasing sophistication of weapons that were finding their way into the hands of the Polisario.

Although it appears that there has been some progress towards finding a peaceful resolution to the war, there continued to be a significant requirement for U.S. security assistance to Morocco for some time to come. Except for the purchase of M48A5 tanks, TOW anti-tank missile systems, and additional F-5 ?ghters, the largest portion of U.S. security assistance in the 1980s was used to sustain the operational readiness of U.S.-origin equipment. As this equipment started to succumb to age and continues to operate in the harsh desert environment of the Western Sahara, the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces had to replace and modernize its materiel.

Each Moroccan military service, in conjunction with its own budget development, prepares a Five-Year Plan for utilization of estimated security assistance funding levels. These plans focus on U.S.-origin equipment sustainment requirements, ammunition needs, and desired acquisitions for force development and/or modernization. Each service's budget request is approved by the King. After the Government of Morocco is informed of the level of U.S. security assistance funds appropriated by the U.S. Congress, each Service reprioritizes and resubmits its Five-Year Plan requirements.