US approves $8.6b arms sales for Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Israel

The US State Department said on Friday it has approved military sales totalling over $8.6 billion to Middle Eastern allies Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

The announcements came as the US and Israel’s war against Iran marked nine weeks since its start and more than three weeks since a fragile ceasefire came into effect.

The announcements included approving military sales to Qatar of Patriot air and missile defence replenishment services costing $4.01 billion and of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) — a laser-guided weapons kit — costing $992.4 million.

They also included approval of the sale to Kuwait of an integrated battle command system costing $2.5 billion and to Israel of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems costing $992.4 million.

The State Department approved a sale to the UAE of APKWS for $147.6 million.

The principal contractor in the APKWS sales to Qatar, Israel, and the UAE was BAE Systems, the State Department said.

RTX and Lockheed Martin were the principal contractors in the integrated battle command system sale to Kuwait and in the Patriot air and missile defence replenishment sale to Qatar, the State Department added.

Northrop Grumman was also a principal contractor in the Kuwaiti sale.

Meanwhile, Washington has warned European allies, including the UK, Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia, to expect long delivery delays for US weapons as the war against Iran drains stockpiles, the Financial Times reported., citing people familiar with the matter.

Throughout the war with Iran, Israel and Washington’s Gulf allies came under attack from Iranian missiles and drones.