Sen. Arlen Specter (R. Pa.) has protested to the Reagan Administration about its plans to sell the United States’ most sophisticated anti-tank shell to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. Specter lodged his protest in a meeting with Secretary of State George Shultz and in a letter to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger last week.
The shell, made out of depleted uranium, has never been provided to the U.S.’s NATO allies or Israel, according to Michael Gale, an aide to Specter.
The U.S. plans to sell 15,000 of the 105 millimeter shells to Saudi Arabia, 10,000 to Egypt, 2,000 to Jordan and 1,800 to Bahrain at a cost of $635 per shell, Gale said. He added that in May 1986, the Department of Defense began negotiations with Egypt for co-production of the shell.
In his letter to Weinberger, Specter said that such a “transfer of technology” could upset the “precarious military balance” in the Middle East. He also warned of the danger of the shells falling into the hands of “radical” elements.
The shells can penetrate tanks and set them ablaze, Gale said. Although the depleted uranium can be converted into plutonium for use as nuclear weapons, this is a long and costly operation, he noted. However, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has prohibited the sale of the shells to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, according to Gale.
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