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The former vice-president of defence contractor IAP Worldwide Services, which was fined $7.1m in June for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) offences, has been jailed for 120 days by a Virginia court. James Michael Rama pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions. According to the US Department of Justice, IAP and Rama conspired to ensure that IAP would be the consultant on phase one (planning and feasibility) of the Ministry of Interior’s Kuwait Security Programme, intended to provide surveillance capabilities for government agencies, in order to tailor requirements for phase two – installation – contracts. Revenues from the phase two contract were expected to be substantially greater than from phase one.

Governments in the Middle East increased their defence spending by 6.2% in 2017, according to the latest analysis of expenditure trends by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), released on 2 May. Saudi Arabia continues to overshadow other countries in the region, with an outlay last year of $69.4bn, up 9.2% on 2016. Worldwide, total military expenditure was $1.74trn in 2017, an increase of 1.1% in real terms from 2016 and equivalent to 2.2% of global GDP.

Members of the Saudi-led Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), the body set up at the behest of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in December 2015, held their inaugural council meeting in Riyadh on 3 March.

State-owned Saudi Arabia Military Industries (Sami) announced on 7 November that it had signed a joint venture with Spain’s firm Navantia to produce five Avante 2200 corvettes. It is the first major arms deal to make progress since the Jamal Khashoggi affair came to light; given that a €2bn ($2.3bn) contract was inked by the two sides in July, the decision to stage another formal signing at this time was perhaps motivated more by Riyadh’s desire to portray a sense of ‘business as usual’ rather than any commercial imperative.

In a major revamp of the domestic defence industry, “more than 25” local companies and 12,000 staff have been brought together into a new umbrella group called Edge. The new group includes subsidiaries of Emirates Defence Industries Company, Emirates Advanced Investments Group and Tawazun Holding, who together have some $5bn in annual revenues. To date only 23 entities have been named, including small arms maker Caracal, armoured vehicle firm Al-Nimr and electronic warfare player Sign4l.

Interior minister Lieutenant-General Sheikh Rashid Bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa travelled to the UK in late January for talks with government ministers and backbench MPs, in an effort to impress upon London the terrorist threats his government says it is facing.

Sweden’s defence minister quit last week after outcry at government plans to help Saudi Arabia build a weapons plant. Swedish outrage at the idea of signing military agreements with undemocratic countries is admirable; British and US newspapers have also recently decried massive arms deals to the Gulf. But arguably, the provenance of weapons – while important to the domestic politics of source countries – is only a sideshow.

The campaign of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki to stay in office at the head of a new administration has been given fresh impetus with the support of a number of former enemies. Iran has timed a switch of policy to support

Despite the cooling of relations after 9/11, the Kingdom has worked hard to maintain close security ties to the US, and mutual hostility towards Iran will further deepen the relationship. The death of Crown Prince Sultan, the longstanding defence and aviation minister, marks the end of a remarkable career during which he worked with 13 US defence secretaries.

A report by the Saudi-owned daily Asharq Al-Awsat that the suspected mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing had been handed over to Saudi authorities threatens further complications in Riyadh’s relations with Iran and the United States, ahead of congressional votes on the nuclear deal and President Barack Obama’s scheduled 4 September meeting with King Salman Bin Abdelaziz at the White House. Ahmed Al-Mughassil, a senior leader of Iranian-backed Saudi group Hizbollah Al-Hijaz, had been living in Beirut under Lebanese Hizbollah’s protection.

The Gulf Co-operation Council is moving forward with setting up a long-planned Gulf Academy for Strategic and Security Studies, to be funded equally by the six member states from 2022 onwards. The academy is due to start offering courses from the 2023/24 academic year, according to the final communiqué issued at the end of the 40th GCC Supreme Council in Riyadh on 10 December

UAE joint defence committee with US; Mayall tour of UAE and Yemen; Yemeni coastguard base on Miyoun Island

A number of large defence contracts were unveiled between Saudi Arabia and the United States, during the visit of Crown Prince and defence minister Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) in late March/early April – a noted contrast to the lack of deal making during his visit to the UK earlier in March, where the only development was a commitment to continue discussing an order for Typhoon jets. The American deals totalled close to $2.4bn and came in two batches. The largest element was a $1.3bn order for howitzers announced by the State Department on 5 April.

Amid all the talk of war on Iran, it is worth noting that Israeli deputy foreign minister Daniel Ayalon took the time last week to distance his country from any notion of imminent conflict.

The UAE is reportedly close to finalising a deal with US-based Iomax to buy 12 more Archangel border patrol aircraft, with options for a further dozen, according to defence industry specialist Jane’s.