TSAMTO, January 22. According to sources of the Reuters news agency, the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement with the United States on the purchase of 50 F-35 "Lightning-2" fighters and up to 18 armed MQ-9B UAVs.
According to one of the agency's sources, the document was signed an hour before the swearing-in of President-elect Joseph Biden. The signed agreement gave the United Arab Emirates the opportunity to agree on the delivery schedule and configuration of the aircraft.
The United Arab Emirates, one of Washington's closest allies in the Middle East, has long expressed interest in acquiring Lockheed Martin-made F-35 aircraft and has been promised to lift the ban on their sale after concluding an agreement last August to normalize relations with Israel.
According to Reuters sources, it was previously expected to complete the deal in December, but it took additional time to agree on the cost, delivery dates of the aircraft, the package of transferred technologies, etc.
As the agency reported, since the agreement was concluded before President Joseph Biden took office, he said that he did not rule out the possibility of its revision.
The F-35 "Lightning-2" fighter jets are the main element of the weapons package ordered by the UAE in the fall of 2020 in the United States, with a total cost of about $ 23 billion. The delivery dates of the aircraft have not yet been disclosed, but the initial offer sent to the UAE was listed as 2027. The UAE government has also signed a separate agreement to buy up to 18 UAVs, which is the second largest sale of American drones to a single country.
As reported by CAMTO, in November 2020, the US State Department decided to approve the potential delivery to the United Arab Emirates under the "Foreign Military Sales" program of up to 50 F-35A aircraft in the conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) version, as well as related equipment and services worth a total of $ 10.4 billion.
At the same time, the delivery of a package of weapons for the F-35A worth $ 10 billion and up to 18 MQ-9B UAVs in an armed version with associated equipment worth up to $ 2.97 billion was approved.
