The United States government has authorized the potential sale of a logistics support package for the Patriot air defense systems of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces. The transaction, notified by the U.S. Department of State to the U.S. Congress for approval, is valued at US$800 million and falls under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
According to information released on January 14 by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the Government of Kuwait requested from the United States the purchase of equipment and services related to the support of Patriot air defense systems.
In detail, the operation valued at the aforementioned US$800 million, with RTX Corporation as the principal contractor, includes the provision of: “…spare parts and repair components; storage and aging management; surveillance firing; arsenal reliability; shared and country-specific support through the PATRIOT PAC-3 Missile Support Center (P3MSC); operator and maintenance support; support for test program set development processes; publications and technical documentation; personnel training and training equipment; and engineering, technical, and logistics support services.”
The State Department indicated that: “The proposed sale will improve Kuwait’s ability to meet current and future threats by helping it maintain higher levels of operational readiness while meeting its modernization and professionalization objectives. Kuwait will have no difficulty absorbing these items and services into its armed forces.”
Finally, it should be noted that this support package for Kuwait adds to other authorizations granted by the United States in favor of the country. One of the most significant took place last year, when the State Department authorized the provision of recertification services for its PAC-2 Guided Enhanced Missiles (GEM) and its Guided Enhanced Missile-Tactical (GEM-T) missiles.
*Photographs used for illustrative purposes.
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