WASHINGTON:The United States formally approved defense contracts totaling more than $1 billion with Saudi Arabia, as the Kingdom’s Crown Prince continued his American tour.
The state department confirmed it had green-lighted a $670 million deal for anti-tank missiles, a $106 million contract for helicopter maintenance and $300 million for ground vehicle parts.
An official said the deals had been in the pipeline since President Donald Trump has announced more than $100 billion in possible new contracts on a visit to Riyadh last year.
The largest of the three contracts is for 6,600 tow 2b anti-tank missiles, made by US giant Raytheon.
The next biggest covers spare parts and maintenance for the Saudi ground forces’ pool of US-built Abram tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, Lav armored vehicles, howitzers and Humvees.
The last continues a support contract for the Saudi fleet of ah-64d and e apache attack helicopters, UK-60l black hawk utility choppers and Schweizer and bell scouts.
APP/AFP