US approves military sales of $8.6b to Mideast allies

The US State Department has approved military sales totaling more than US$8.6 billion ($11.9 billion) to Middle East allies Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Friday’s announcements come as it has been nine weeks since the beginning of the United States and Israel’s war against Iran and more than three weeks since a fragile ceasefire took effect.

Announcements made by the State Department included approval of the military sale of Patriot air and missile defense supply services to Qatar, costing US$4.01 billion, and Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS), costing US$992.4 million.

These also included approving the sale of a US$2.5 billion integrated combat command system to Kuwait and a US$992.4 million sale of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems to Israel.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved the sale of APKWS to the UAE for US$147.6 million.

The prime contractor for APKWS’ sales to Qatar, Israel and the UAE is BAE Systems, the State Department said.

The State Department added that RTX and Lockheed Martin were prime contractors on the integrated combat command system sale to Kuwait and the Patriot air and missile defense supply sale to Qatar.

Northrop Grumman was also the prime contractor on the Kuwait sale.