The U.S. approved five possible arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Morocco on Thursday totaling nearly $8 billion.
The State Department approved the sale of 48 CH-47 Chinook helicopters to Saudi Arabia, in addition to related spare equipment and support such as 7.62mm machine guns and engines. The total estimated value of the deal for the cargo helos, which are made by Boeing, is $3.51 billion.
As part of the contract, about 60 U.S. government and contractor employees would have to travel to Saudi Arabia for up to five years to help with fielding the new technology and providing training.
The U.S. also approved the sale of Boeing’s Apache AH-64E helicopters to the United Arab Emirates. The $3.5 billion sale would include 28 remanufactured and nine new helos, as well as other gear such as night vision sensors, helmets and spare parts.
Two sales to Qatar were also approved on Thursday. One is for $81 million worth of spare parts for its fleet of eight Boeing Globemaster III C-17s and another is for $700 million in logistics support for the same aircraft.
“The proposed sale will enhance Qatar’s ability to operate and maintain its C-17s, supporting its capability to provide humanitarian aid in the Middle East and Africa region and support its troops in coalition operations. Qatar’s current contract supporting its C-17 fleet will expire in September of 2017,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency wrote in a release.
The U.S. is also prepared to sell about 1,200 TOW 2A radio frequency missiles made by Raytheon to Morocco with an estimated value of $108 million.
