The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has announced that U.S. State Department approval for the sale of National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAMS) to Qatar.

According to a statement on 27 November, the U.S. State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Qatar of defense articles and services in support of a Direct Commercial Sale of the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAMS) for an estimated cost of $215 million.

The Government of Qatar has requested to buy defense articles and services from the U.S. Government in support of a Direct Commercial Sale of the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAMS).

Also, the procurement will covers 40 AIM 120C-7 AMRAAM missiles, 1 spare AIM 120C-7 AMRAAM guidance section, 1 spare AIM-120C-7 control section, 8 AMRAAM Captive Air Training Missile (CATM-120C), missile containers, classified software for the AN/MPQ-64F1 Sentinel Radar, spare parts and other types of equipment.

DSCA noted that this proposed sale supports the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping improve the security of a key partner which has been, and continues to be, a significant host and member of coalition forces in the Middle East.

This proposed sale improves Qatar’s defense capability to deter regional threats and strengthen its homeland defense. The NASAMS capability would provide a full range of protection from imminent hostile cruise missile, unmanned aerial vehicle, rotary wing, and fixed wing threats. Qatar will have no difficulty in absorbing this equipment.

NASAMS is a distributed and networked medium to long-range air-defense system developed by Kongsberg Defence and Raytheon.

The system provides the air defender with a tailorable, state-of-the-art defense system that can maximize their ability to quickly identify, engage and destroy current and evolving enemy aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicle and emerging cruise missile threats.

NASAMS is owned by nine countries and has been integrated into the U.S. National Capital Region’s air defense system since 2005. In addition to the U.S., Norway, Finland, Spain, The Netherlands, Oman, Lithuania, Indonesia and one undisclosed country have chosen to depend on NASAMS for homeland defense and the defense of critical assets.