US approves over $2bn in weapons sales to Egypt, Kuwait and UAE
The US State Department notified Congress last week that it approved the sale of more than $2bn in US weapons systems to Egypt, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
Kuwait will buy an estimated $400m worth of repair services and parts for Patriot air-defence systems it operates, the State Department said in a statement on Friday.
The State Department also approved Egypt’s purchase of more than 2,000 FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles and up to 200 Javelin launch units. The sale will come with support equipment including simulation rounds, spare parts, and US government technical assistance. The sale is estimated to cost $832m.
The priciest purchase among the tranche was approved for the UAE to purchase up to 10,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System-IIs (APKWS-II). The laser-guided kits are for both air-to-air and air-to-ground configurations. The sale is estimated to cost $1.04bn.
APKWS-IIs are kits that transform unguided rockets into precision munitions. They are used for offensive strikes, but the air-to-air variant is also used as a low-cost way to shoot down enemy drones. The UAE faced thousands of drone and missile attacks from Iran as a result of the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic. The air-to-ground variety can be used for surgical strikes.
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The US announced all the sales on Friday. "The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region," the State Department said in the statement.
Foreign Military Sales (FMS) refers to the purchase of US weapons systems with other countries' sovereign funds. Egypt also receives roughly $1.3bn in Foreign Military Financing (FMF), which is US taxpayer-funded weapons purchases on Cairo's behalf. The arrangement stems from Egypt's four-decade-old peace treaty with Israel.
Israel is the world's largest recipient of FMF, receiving $3.3bn annually. This figure does not include all military aid to Israel. For example, Brown University estimated that the US spent $21.7bn on military aid to Israel in the two years after 7 October 2023.
The State Department said in separate statements that the three sales “support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States”. The State Department added that the countries were forces for “political stability” and “economic growth”.
The State Department said that the sale of Javelins - a system used with great effect by Ukraine against Russian tanks - will not require the deployment of US contractors or personnel to Egypt. Likewise, the sale will not result in additional US personnel being assigned permanently to the UAE.
However, the State Department said five “additional US contractor representatives” will go to Kuwait for two years to provide handling and documentation support for servicing Patriot batteries.
The assignment comes at a time when US military bases and facilities in the Gulf have come under intense attack from Iranian missiles and drones. Kuwait was one of the hardest-hit countries in the region.
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