The Donald Trump administration greenlighted the delivery of 162 Abrams tanks to Morocco last year to help the kingdom respond to regional challenges. Under the Excess Defense Articles program, or EDA, surplus military equipment that hasn’t been offered to domestic police forces can be made available at reduced or no cost to foreign allies. In addition to the tanks, Rabat received tracked command post vehicles, grenade launchers and howitzers as well as 419 armored personnel carriers. The uptick in deliveries of used weapons comes amid increasing congressional scrutiny of domestic use of US surplus military equipment by police units following the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, that denounced law enforcement violence against African-Americans. More excess defense equipment also flowed to traditional American counterterrorism partners in 2017, including deliveries of M2 machine guns and artillery ammunition support vehicles to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 02, 2018 21:45 UTC