State Approves Fighter Sales to Qatar, Kuwait

The State Department on Nov. 17 approved a large-scale fighter jet deal to Qatar and Kuwait, sending dozens of aircraft to the Gulf nations in deals worth more than $30 billion. Qatar will buy 72 Boeing F-15QAs with weapons and related support for $21.1 billion, according to a Defense Security Cooperation Agency release on the sale. Kuwait will buy 40 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and spare engines, along with related support equipment and training in a deal worth $10.1 billion, according to DSCA. The sales, which Congress can still reject, involved no communication between the Pentagon and the incoming Trump Administration, Air Force deputy undersecretary for international affairs Heidi Grant said Friday. Speaking at an AFA-sponsored, Air Force event. “No conversation has happened with the incoming administration,” Grant said of the sale, noting it has been in the works a long time and, “in fact, I expected this to move forward two years ago.” She expects little input from the new administration, and said the US will execute on Foreign Military Sales programs in the pipeline “right up to Jan. 20.”