US approves military sales of over $8.6 billion to Middle East allies

WASHINGTON, ​May 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was ​approving ‌military sales totaling over $8.6 billion to Middle Eastern allies ⁠Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and the United ⁠Arab Emirates.

The announcements came ​as the U.S. and Israel's war against Iran marked nine weeks since its start and more than three ​weeks since ‌a fragile ceasefire came into effect.

Friday's announcements by the State Department included approving military sales to Qatar of Patriot air and missile defense replenishment services costing $4.01 ​billion and of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) costing $992.4 million.

They ‌also included approval of the sale to Kuwait of an integrated battle command ‌system costing $2.5 billion and to Israel of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems costing $992.4 million.

The State Department approved a sale to ​the UAE of APKWS for $147.6 million.

The principal contractor in the ‌APKWS sales to Qatar, Israel and the UAE was BAE Systems, the State Department said.

RTX and Lockheed Martin ⁠were ⁠the principal contractors in the integrated battle ‌command system sale to Kuwait and in the Patriot air and ​missile ​defense replenishment sale to Qatar, the State ‌Department added.

Northrop Grumman was also a principal contractor in the Kuwaiti sale.

BAE Systems

Raytheon Technologies

Lockheed Martin

Northrop Grumman Corp