Qatar plans to buy US Patriot missile batteries and Apache attack helicopters in a major arms deal worth about $11 billion, senior Pentagon officials said Monday. The sale would provide Qatar with roughly ten batteries for Patriot systems designed to knock out incoming missiles, as well as 24 Apache helicopters and 500 Javelin anti-tank missiles, officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
Qatar was investing in missile defense systems to counter what it sees as the threat from Iran across the Gulf, as Tehran has built up its missile arsenal, officials said. The weapons deal was the biggest for the United States in 2014 and came as Qatar weighs proposals in a fighter jet competition, with US aerospace firm Boeing vying against British BAE Systems and Dassault Aviation of France. "It's a good sign," said a senior defense official, referring to the arms sale and the prospects for the fighter jet bidding. "It's a pretty significant step."
Qatar's minister of state for defense, Major General Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah, committed to the sale in a signing ceremony Monday in Washington after talks with his American counterpart, Chuck Hagel. The United States wants to preserve its role as "the defense provider of choice" for Qatar and other Gulf states, the official said. It was also the first time Qatar had acquired Patriot missiles, which other Gulf countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have purchased in the past.
US officials and commanders have long urged their Gulf partners to set up a coordinated missile defense network to counter Iran but cooperation has been slow in coming. The weapons would enhance America's security and diplomatic ties to Qatar, the US official said, despite some disagreement over Syria and Qatar's assistance to some rebel groups deemed too radical by Washington. The Pentagon portrays arms sales as a way of forging closer ties to friendly countries and cultivating relationships with another military through training on US-made aircraft and weapons.