Morocco Boosts Military Spending by 4% to Modernize Armed Forces

During the presentation of his budget to the House of Councilors, the Delegate Minister in charge of National Defense Administration, Abdellatif Loudiyi, reviewed the military policy implemented by the kingdom to modernize its army in order to meet security challenges.

According to him, this amount remains insufficient given the scale of the missions carried out by the Royal Armed Forces and in comparison with the budgets of neighboring countries such as Algeria, which devotes more than $10.3 billion (6% of its GDP) to its Army.

For the record, Morocco has sought the expertise of France, the United States and Israel in recent months to strengthen and modernize its military arsenal. The minister cited, among other things, the purchase of five Hermes 900 spy drones from the Israeli manufacturer Elbit Systems, and more recently the Skylock Drone from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

Furthermore, the FAR are currently modernizing the air fleet with the order of the latest sophisticated version of the F-16 fighters. The same goes for the AH-64E (Apache) attack helicopters ordered by Morocco from Boeing.

All these contracts include clauses for the training of Moroccan military personnel in all areas related to the weapons purchased. That being said, the Kingdom also aims to become more autonomous in the maintenance and repair of military equipment, the minister assured.