The Obama Administration would like to sell Italy weapons for its fleet of MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, according to press reports. The White House sent a confidential “pre-notification” to lawmakers in April detailing a plan to sell weapons kits to Italy to arm up to six Reapers, reported the Wall Street Journal (via the New York Post) on May 29. Formal congressional notification could come as soon as this week, stated the newspaper. Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters on May 29 that he couldn’t “comment directly” on the topic, since “there’s a formal notification process to Congress” that has to play out. “I will say more broadly that, when it comes to foreign military sales to Italy, that they’re a strong partner and a strong ally” and “it’s important for us, for a variety of reasons, to share technologies and capabilities with them,” he said. Britain already operates armed US-supplied RPA. (Little transcript)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.