US gives initial okay to $3.5 billion missile sale to Saudi Arabia ahead of Trump visit
Deal includes 1,000 AIM-120C-8 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles; White House set to announce $100 billion arms package during US president’s trip this month
The United States has given initial approval to sell $3.5 billion worth of air-to-air missiles for Saudi Arabia’s fighter jets, the latest proposed arms deal for the region ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned trip to the region later this month.
The sale, announced early Saturday, will likely be one of several heralded by Trump on his visit to the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has already said it wants to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years, apparently to woo Trump to again pick the kingdom for his first formal trip as US president. Trump traveled to Italy briefly for Pope Francis’s funeral last Saturday.
Trump’s 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia upended a tradition of modern US presidents typically visiting Canada, Mexico or the United Kingdom for their first trip abroad. Speaking about the trip, Trump has said he predicts Saudi Arabia would “very quickly” normalize ties with Israel, which he is not slated to visit.
The trip underscores the Trump administration’s close ties to the rulers of the oil-rich Gulf states as his eponymous real estate company has pursued deals across the region.
The arms sale involves 1,000 AIM-120C-8 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, guidance sections and other technical support. The missiles will be built by RTX Corp of Tucson, Arizona.
The Royal Saudi Air Force has the world’s second-largest fleet of F-15 fighter jets after the US.
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that contributes to political stability and economic progress in the Gulf Region,” the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
Trump maintained close ties to the Gulf states after leaving office. His second administration has already given initial approval for Qatar to buy eight armed MQ-9B Reaper drones for its military, a purchase estimated to be worth nearly $2 billion.
Reuters reported last month that the US would offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, to be announced during Trump’s visit. The reported offer came after his predecessor Joe Biden tried unsuccessfully to reach a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi-Israeli normalization. The process was placed on the back burner amid the kingdom’s insistence that such a plan include Palestinian statehood, a nonstarter for Jerusalem.
The arms sale announced Saturday will now go to the US Congress, where lawmakers typically weigh in on such sales and, in some cases, block them.
Saudi Arabia has faced intense Congressional scrutiny for years, first for launching a war on Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels back in 2015 that saw the kingdom’s airstrikes kill civilians. Then, a Saudi assassination team killed Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The US intelligence community concluded that the assassination was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who likely will meet Trump when the US president visits this month and who had also met with Biden during the previous administration. Saudi Arabia insists the prince was not involved in the killing.
In an interview with Time magazine last month, Trump expressed his liking for the Saudi crown prince and the Saudi people, adding that “Saudi Arabia…agreed to invest a trillion dollars in our economy.”
The president, who said he would also be visiting Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, told Time he thinks “Saudi Arabia will go into the Abraham Accords,” the peace agreements Trump brokered between Israel and four Arab nations during his first term. “I think it will be full very quickly,” said Trump.
Saudi Arabia, which appeared poised to sign a peace deal with Israel before the Gaza war sparked by the October 7, 2023, onslaught by the Hamas terror group, has previously rejected Trump’s statement that Riyadh had not conditioned normalization with Israel on Palestinian statehood.
The Times of Israel Community.