Somaliland and Israel – An opportunity for a great military and economic partnership?

[Deeq A.]

 

Somaliland and Israel – An opportunity for a great military and economic partnership?

For decades Somaliland was unable to properly procure arms. Due to being an unrecognized country, nominally a part of Somalia, it has suffered the same sanctions imposed on Somalia, despite having nothing to do with Somalia’s nasty criminal underworld and piracy.

As a result, the SNA (Somaliland National Army) was forced to procure arms from local militias, Ethiopia, smugglers and, recently, donations from the UAE. This left the SNA with a patchwork of ad hoc weaponry of varying quality.

But of course, this situation may soon change: the Israeli recognition serves as a major opportunity for both countries.

Israel has plenty of experience both producing modern equipment and refurbishing older or captured military equipment. As a result, it can offer Somaliland a major cost-effective upgrade for its army.

Now let’s see where the SNA may want Israeli aid:

Somaliland tank fleet.

(1) As you can see, Somaliland has about ~135 tanks, mostly older models. These tanks would not be able to withstand modern anti-tank weaponry or modern tanks. A threat that is becoming more and more realistic as Turkey and Saudi Arabia are backing Somalia, which is Somaliland’s main enemy. Saudi Arabia has also engaged with Puntland with the intention of keeping the UAE’s influence at bay.

Israel has experience upgrading older Soviet equipment like these tanks, specifically with the Tiran Tank Project. I am proposing to revive it under the Tiran-2026 Project, which would upgrade those tanks to modern Israeli standards.

The project would grant Somaliland a proper armoured force, while granting Israel a tidy profit and the ability to showcase these newly upgraded tanks to other nations that operate similar equipment around Africa.

(2) Somaliland uses anti-air weaponry from the 1950s; such weapons cannot compete with the Turkish drones provided to Somalia and the Iranian drones provided to the Houthis. If Somaliland is to acquire airspace sovereignty, it would likely need to purchase proper AA, and the only country capable and willing to provide it is Israel.

For that purpose the Iron Beam, alongside SPYDER or Barak MX and an ELM-2084 radar system, would be needed.

Somaliland naval assets.

(3) Somaliland’s navy isn’t technologically lacking, but Defender-class fast boats are simply boats with machine guns; such boats are not much better than the boats used by the pirates they fight. They could use a couple of Shaldag-class patrol boats.

(4) Israel is already exporting small arms to Somaliland in the form of the IWI Arad and Tavor Tar-21, the Negev Light Machine Gun, and the IWI Masada Sidearm – I believe we could double down on this trend.

(5) A local munition plant could greatly decrease Somaliland’s reliance on foreign imports and aid it in integrating local clan militias into the national army by providing compliant clans with better small arms.

(6) Israel could possibly sell some of its M113s to Somaliland, as it is already planning to phase them out, or upgrade existing APCs for them.

Cost of the deal

Somaliland has a national GDP of $4.28B and a government budget of $424.5M; about 63% of the central government budget ($267M) is allocated to “defence, security, and administration”.

Therefore a plan costing a total of ~$148M may seem a bit steep, but the issue could be fixed via an offset agreement. Such an agreement is meant to offset the economic burden of a deal by promising that a percentage of the revenue or profits would be reinvested into the purchasing country.

These funds could then be reinvested into industries that have great potential or in which Israel already has expertise. Possibly those would be railroads, highways, port infrastructure, agriculture, mining or arms manufacturing (specifically munitions).

There are plenty of mutually beneficial opportunities for investment in a cash-hungry country that has a strategic location as well as plenty of agricultural and mining potential – and hopefully Israel will seize the day.

Aside from that, international agreements are a great way to bolster a country’s legitimacy, and Somaliland could use this agreement to prove to the world that it is a viable state that is safe to invest in.

Apex Imperialist

@ApexImperialist

 

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