The State Department on Tuesday approved a potential $3 billion F-15 fighter jet sustainment deal for Saudi Arabia, as the Trump administration is fulfilling its pledge to sell Riyadh a large number of weapons.
The latest deal came less than a week after the State Department moved forward with another major potential deal for Patriot air defense missiles worth $9 billion.
The $12 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia came a few months after Saudi Crown Prince Mohhamed bin Salman visited President Trump at the White House, where they signed a new military agreement, dubbed the US-Saudi Strategic Defense Agreement (SDA), and the US designated Riyadh a “major non-NATO ally.”
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement on the F-15 sustainment deal that it will “support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a Major non-NATO Ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Gulf Region.”
Under the SDA, Saudi Arabia pledged to purchase F-35 fighter jets and 300 US-made tanks, according to a statement from the White House at the time of MbS’s visit in November 2025. The US is expected to sell more than $100 billion in weapons to Riyadh in the coming months and years.
While Trump made a commitment to a massive number of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, he stopped short of providing the Kingdom with a mutual defense guarantee similar to NATO’s Article 5, something Riyadh has sought for many years.
The latest US arms sales for Saudi Arabia come as the country is at odds with the UAE, another Gulf country Trump strongly supports. Riyadh was recently conducting airstrikes in Yemen against the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council.
Trump maintained close ties with the Saudis during his first term, advancing major arms sales and providing support for the brutal Saudi-led war against the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, in Yemen. In 2019, Trump vetoed a congressional resolution to end US involvement in the war.
