The State Department approved a possible $150 million Foreign Military Sales (FMS) request to the United Kingdom for Hellfire missiles and related support services.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress of the potential sale on March 16.
Photo: Lockheed Martin
The request includes 1,000 AGM-114-R1/R2 Hellfire II Semi-Active Laser (SAL) missiles with logistics support services and other related program support.
DSCA said there is no primary contractor associated with the sale because the missiles would come from U.S. military stock.
The U.K. would use these missiles to improve its capability to meet current and future threats by providing close air support to counter attacks on coalition ground forces in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility and other areas as needed, the agency said.
DSCA highlighted this commonality between close air support capabilities increases interoperability between the U.S. and U.K.’s military and peacekeeping forces and allows for greater burden sharing. It also noted the U.K. already has Hellfire missiles in its inventory so it will be able to absorb the additional missiles without difficulty.
Implementation of the sale would not require the assignment of additional U.S. government or contractor representatives to the U.K.