The State Department approved a potential $800 million Foreign Military Sale with Kuwait on Thursday for 84 Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles and other equipment.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress of the possible sale on May 28.
The FMS includes 84 MAC-3 MSE missiles with cannisters, two Patriot MSE test missiles 2-Pack per unit of issue, missile launcher modification kits, 26 PAC-3 Missile Round Trainers (MRT); 26 Empty Round Trainers (ERT), two PAC-3 telemetry kits, Flight Test Target-Zombie PAC-3 missile spares held within the U.S. for repair and return, PAC-3 missile spares, and various other support and logistics equipment and services.
The primary contractor is the PAC-3 MSE producer Lockheed Martin [LMT].
DSCA said Kuwait will use the missiles to strengthen its homeland air defense to better meet current and future threats as well as allow for integration with U.S. forces in training exercises and interoperability.
“Patriot PAC-3 MSEs will supplement and improve Kuwait’s capability to meet current and future threats and provide greater security for its critical oil and natural gas infrastructure,” the agency said.
Implementing the sale would require assigning two U.S. government and three contractor representatives to Kuwait to support delivery of the PAC-3 MSEs with canisters and provide support and equipment familiarization.
If the sale goes forward, Kuwait will join the U.S. and nine other countries in procuring the PAC-3 MSE: Bahrain, Germany, Japan, Poland, Qatar, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates.
This approval comes a month after the Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $6 billion contract to produced an undisclosed amount of PAC-3 MSEs and support equipment (Defense Daily, May 1).
In May 2019, the State Department approved a $2.7 billion FMS to the UAE for 452 PAC-3 MSEs and related equipment (Defense Daily, May 3, 2019). In July 2019, the State Department approved a $401 million FMS of 50 PAC-3 MSEs to Germany (Defense Daily, July 15, 2019).