Qatar To Purchase $2B Patriot Missile Defense Systems

Raytheon said it is aiming to sign a deal worth $2 billion with Qatar by year end for the supply of Patriot missile defense systems, officials said at the Farnborough International Airshow on Tuesday. The deal is part of a $11 billion Foreign Military Sales agreement announced on Monday in Washington between the governments of Qatar and the United States, which also covers 24 Apache helicopters and 500 Javelin anti-tank missiles. (AFP/Defense News, 15 July)

Qatar will reportedly receive about 10 Patriot batteries.

Meanwhile, at Farnborough F-35 was the dominant topic without being there. The Pentagon had announced earlier that it would allow the planes to fly after being grounded when a F-35A model caught fire in June.

Top photo: Qatar and Raytheon hope to agree on a deal by year-end on the purchase of Patriot batteries. (Raytheon/Defense News)

Bottom photo: F-35 (Lockheed Martin)

Iranian-American Arrested for Alleged Attempted Transfer of F-35 Data to Iran

A naturalized U.S. citizen of Iranian origin was arrested on charges of attempting to ship F-35 technical data to Iran. Mozaffar Khazaee was detained on January 9 at Newark International Airport on his way to Tehran, The Navy Times reported today.

Khazaee was charged with “transporting, transmitting and transferring in interstate or foreign commerce goods obtained by theft, conversion, or fraud.” The crime carries a maximum 10 years imprisonment.

Khazaee, an employee of Pratt and Whitney, was allegedly going to ship “numerous boxes of documents consisting of sensitive technical manuals, specification sheets, and other proprietary material for the F-35.” (The Navy Times, 13 January)

F-35 is the fifth-generation fighter, which is expected to be the backbone of American air superiority over the next several decades.

File photo: An F-35B test aircraft flies in short takeoff/vertical-landing mode in November. (Lockheed Martin/Navy Times)

F-35 Fighters for Israel

F-35

The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has ordered at least 25 F-35 stealth fighter aircraft to counter any potential threat from the delivery of Russian S-300 advanced air defense systems. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, manufactured by Lockheed, is one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world, replacing the aging F-15 and F-16. The fighters will be delivered to Israel in 2014.