Raytheon [RTN] on Wednesday confirmed it won two Qatar contracts for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and more Patriot fire units worth about $2.2 billion.
The announcement came the day after a joint statement from President Trump and the visiting Amir of Qatar noted Qatar’s defense ministry’s commitment to acquire the NASAMS and Patriot as one of several “mutually beneficial transactions.”
The full defense awards will make Qatar the 11th country to procure NASAMS, includes final certification of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile-Extended Range (AMRAAM-ER), and “an unspecified quantity” of additional Patriot missile defense fire units.
Raytheon underscored the AMRAAM-ER certification will make Qatar the first country to procure the system.
The company noted this is all part of a larger agreement Qatar is pursuing with the U.S. government with a combined value extended to be $3 billion.
The AMRAAM and NASAMS order comes after the
State Department approved a Foreign Military Sale to Qatar last November for $215 million worth of defense services supporting the sale of NASAMS and 40 AMRAAM missiles (Defense Daily, Nov. 30, 2018).
Qatar currently operates Patriot batteries and in November it started to receive the first of 10 new Patriot Advanced Capability-3 units from a $2.4 billion 2014 deal. Those units are being delivered over a two-year period and at least one PAC-3 battery was delivered in 2018 (Defense Daily, Nov. 27, 2018).
“Raytheon’s integrated air and missile defense capabilities provide a combat-proven, layered approach that protects citizens, militaries and infrastructure from a broad spectrum of threats,” Ralph Acaba, president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, said in a statement
NASAMS is a medium-range air-defense system that is built by both Raytheon and Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace AS. It uses the Raytheon Sentinel radar and fired multiple interceptors at air threats, including the AMRAAM-ER.