Reports: White House OKs Sale of Boeing, Lockheed Fighter Jets to Qatar, Kuwait & Bahrain

The White House has approved the requests of Kuwait and Qatar to buy up to 76 Boeing-built (NYSE: BA) F-15 and F/A- 18E/F Super Hornet aircraft worth approximately $7 billion, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Andrea Shalal writes the U.S. government also cleared the sale of Lockheed Martin-built (NYSE: LMT) F-16 aircraft to Bahrain under a potential $1 billion foreign military sales agreement.

Sources told Reuters the deals include Qatar™s procurement of 36 F-15 fighter jets for approximately $4 billion and the sale of 28 F/A- 18E/F Super Hornets with options for 12 additional aircraft to Kuwait for approximately $3 billion.

Shalal reports that the FMS deal with Bahrain includes the sale of 17 Lockheed™s F-16s and updates of up to 20 additional fighter planes.

Loren Thompson also reports for Forbes that the White House has notified Congress of the potential FMS transactions, which had earlier been approved by the departments of Defense and State.

The sale of fighter jets to the three Persian Gulf countries has been delayed for years pending approval of U.S. military assistance to Israel, according to Thompson™s report.

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