Under the leadership of Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed, the UAE embarked on the rapid modernization and expansion of its army. It first pursued an “Emiratization” of its armed forces by developing and promoting Emirati officers, strategists, pilots, and technicians – restricting foreign nationals to advisory roles.
Abu Dhabi then boosted its military spending, buying up advanced systems and technologies from around the world, including a fleet of 72 F-16s, French Mirage 2000 jets, Patriot-3 missile systems, and Lockheed Martin’s THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile-defense systems.
Defense spending is basically $20 billion per year. Which is a lot for a small country.
I won't get bogged down in the details of whether the UAE is really like ancient Sparta. Let's just accept that is shorthand for being a small but militarily powerful and modern state--especially since being called "little Israel" just won't make the cut.
But of course I'll also just glide right past the description of the war in Yemen which seems more like accepting Iranian propaganda.
As for the UAE, it has built up credible air/missile defenses and special forces. But it is tiny. Sparta was a superpower within the Greek-world system.
Despite the UAE's population of nearly 10 million people, fewer than 12% are Emirate while the rest are immigrants or guest workers. And it is a collection of 7 semi-autonomous emirates that in some cases have their own armed forces. The UAE can punch above its weight but have no doubt that it needs allies with ground forces to really hold their home ground despite the "Emiratization" of their military.
Certainly, the UAE is a well-defended forward position capable of shielding allies--most notably America, but including Saudi Arabia and possibly Egypt--moving in rapidly to help hold the ground. And short of that scenario, the UAE does remain a capable diplomatic and military partner within their limitations.
Understand the limits of the comparison.
