The Pentagon has issued a statement today confirming that the US State Department has signed off on a $2 billion sale of US-made Patriot missiles to the United Arab Emirates, adding to the tiny Gulf nation’s ever growing military arsenal.
The sale includes 65 PAC-3 interceptors and 100 GEM-T missiles. It is unclear when the UAE intends to do with all these missiles, though the State Department was willing to sign off on it being in the “national security” interest of the US to make the sales.
That process virtually goes without saying at this point, as for years the US has been signing off on growing sales of arms across the Middle East, and anything but an immediate approval is extremely rare, and usually extremely temporary.
The UAE has shown interest in increased military operations abroad in recent years, both regionally and into Africa. It’s unclear what, if any, military value such massively expensive missiles would have in such operations, however.