The UAE has signed an agreement with the United States to purchase 50 F-35 fighter jets and up to 18 armed drones.
Reuters reported from informed sources that the agreement was signed about an hour before Biden's inauguration, allowing the UAE to accept the negotiated delivery schedule for the fighter jets and granting the purchase request official status. The sources indicated that the UAE had prepared the agreement documents over a week ago, noting that both sides hoped to finalize the deal by December. However, the timing of the jets' delivery, their cost, technology, training, and other related issues have prolonged negotiations.
In this context, the sources revealed that the UAE government also signed a separate agreement to purchase 18 drones, making this the second largest deal of its kind the US has made with a single country. While the sources did not specify the final deadline for the delivery of the F-35 jets, the initial proposal sent by the US to the UAE was for 2027.
It is worth mentioning that the F-35 aircraft form a significant part of a $23 billion deal for high-tech weapon sales from General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon Technologies Corp to the UAE, which has been announced this fall. The UAE has long been considered one of Washington’s closest allies in the Middle East.
