U.A.E. to purchase THAAD system from US 6, June 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations, The Emirates.Tags: Arms sales to UAE, THAAD, THAAD sales, THAAD system, UAE arms importer, UAE arms purchases, US arms sales
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It appears that the U.A.E. will soon be purchasing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile system from America for some $7 billion. The Emirates would be the first country in the world to buy such an advanced system from America.
THAAD systems are, I believe, essentially a more advanced, longer range Patriot missile defense systems. No prizes for guessing why the Emirates want to augment their Patriot shield with the THAAD.
Although this potential purchase was announced some time ago, there was always a question mark as to whether the US government/Congress would allow such advanced technology to be sold to the Emirates.
The down-side of this purchase is that it adds yet another system (in addition to existing Aegis and Patriot systems) that will need to be integrated in to the much mooted pan-GCC missile defense systems
The Gulf blog 