Qatar is in line to get US drones, bombs worth $2 billion

MILAN — The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of a hefty weapons package to Qatar, including a handful of long-range maritime surveillance drones and hundreds of missiles and bombs.

The Gulf nation has requested to buy eight MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft and related equipment for an estimated cost of nearly $2 billion, a March 26 notice from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency stated.

The country’s military wish list also included 200 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, 300 500-lb general-purpose bombs, 110 Hellfire II missiles, Seaspray 7500 maritime radars and SAGE Electronic Support Measure systems from Leonardo.

The U.S. government approval comes five years after Qatar made an initial request to buy MQ-9Bs, nicknamed SeaGuardian. The order faced a significant holdup, which eventually led Qatari officials to grow irritated with the U.S. administration, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

While Qatar is in the habit of being secretive about its military purchases, glimpses of its equipment over the years have shown that it also operates six of the Turkish-made TB2 drones. It was among the first customers of these systems, seen for the first time in a Qatari military exercise in 2020.

These drones are regularly tracked by open-source intelligence sources as flying out from the Dukhan/Tamim Air Base, built in 2018 for the Qatar Emiri Air Force.

Task Force 99, a U.S. Air Force innovation unit, is also based at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where they focus on experimenting with unmanned systems.

In an interview with Defense News last month, the president of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, David Alexander, said he was optimistic that the Trump government would accelerate previously delayed defense deals with Middle East governments.

The company executive added that he expected a sale of the SeaGuardians to the United Arab Emirates to resume under Trump and that they have offered a package deal to Saudi Arabia to acquire a number of these drones as well.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo was a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.

米兰——美国国务院已批准向卡塔尔出售一大批武器，其中包括少量远程海上监视无人机和数百枚导弹和炸弹。

据美国国防安全合作局 3 月 26 日发布的通知称，海湾国家已提出购买 8 架 MQ-9B 遥控驾驶飞机及相关设备，预计耗资近 20 亿美元。

该国的军事愿望清单还包括 200 枚联合直接攻击弹药、300 枚 500 磅通用炸弹、110 枚地狱火 II 型导弹、Seaspray 7500 海上雷达和莱昂纳多公司的 SAGE 电子支援措施系统。

美国政府的批准距离卡塔尔最初提出购买MQ-9B无人机（代号“海上卫士”）的请求已过去了五年。据《华尔街日报》报道，这笔订单曾遭遇重大阻碍，最终导致卡塔尔官员对美国政府感到不满。

尽管卡塔尔一贯对其军事采购讳莫如深，但多年来对其装备的披露表明，它也拥有六架土耳其制造的TB2无人机。卡塔尔是这些无人机的首批客户之一，这些无人机于2020年在卡塔尔的一次军事演习中首次亮相。

据开源情报来源定期追踪，这些无人机是从杜汉/塔米姆空军基地起飞的，该基地于 2018 年为卡塔尔埃米尔空军建造。

美国空军创新部队第 99 特遣队也驻扎在卡塔尔的乌代德空军基地，他们专注于无人系统的试验。

上个月，通用原子航空系统公司总裁大卫·亚历山大在接受《防务新闻》采访时表示，他乐观地认为特朗普政府将加快与中东各国政府此前推迟的防务交易。

该公司高管补充说，他预计在特朗普执政期间，向阿联酋出售“海上卫士”无人机的交易将会恢复，而且他们也向沙特阿拉伯提供了一揽子交易，以购买一批此类无人机。

伊丽莎白·戈斯林-马洛曾任《防务新闻》欧洲通讯员。她的报道涵盖军事采购和国际安全等广泛领域，尤其擅长航空领域的报道。她常驻意大利米兰。