World Defense Show 2026: Middle East remains focused on US equipment and local industry involvement
An Australian M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams taking part in a live fire trial; Bahrain has been approved to buy the same vehicles. (Photo: Australian DoD)
Vehicle procurement in the Middle East continues to target big-ticket main battle tanks, with lighter platform purchases also potentially on the horizon including tactical, infantry fighting and armoured personnel carrier vehicles.
The Middle East market for tracked and wheeled vehicles, including both contracted and unawarded, is valued at US$63.5 billion over the next decade, with almost half of this figure pertaining to 12 unawarded programmes at a total value of $31.7 billion.
The estimated spend, according to research from Shephard Defence Insight, covers 20,675 vehicles across all requirements and 9,871 vehicles in unawarded programmes.
The largest unawarded programmes are for main battle tanks (MBTs). Specifically, Bahrain’s estimated spend on MBTs is $2.2 billion, while future orders of the Altay MBT for Turkey are valued at $9.2 billion, along with $675 million for Saudi Arabia, $864
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