This official and others who described the weapons purchases spoke on the condition that they not be named.
Numbers are the lowest in eight years, as those nations curtailed new weapons purchases because of the global economy.
China's weapons purchases and recent sharp increase in military spending are directed almost exclusively at Taiwan.
His approach to cost-cutting seems to be to let the armed services stretch out existing weapons purchases.
The weapons purchase began Monday and is to run until Friday.
She said neither the church's board nor her mother knew of the weapons purchases.
They did result in smaller forces and reductions in major weapons purchases.
East Asian nations made 35 percent of all major weapons purchases in 1991.
The Army proposes to stretch out weapons purchases, a measure it was told specifically to avoid.
That led to stretching out weapons purchases and cutting military readiness.