Kuwait to Buy Patriot Missiles

raytheon-patriot-missile-facility-test-equipment-bg.jpgIn a good strategic move Kuwait will be purchasing Patriot missiles from the US. While I normally do not like it when advanced technology armaments are sold to foreign nations, this case is different. Patriots are defensive technologies, and the more nations who have Patriots and like technologies then the less threat Nuclear and other ICBM threats are. This is a good move to ensure commerce and allies are not threatened.

Iran lies just across the Gulf, and has not only made continual threats to interupt shipping; they have blocked the Strait of Hormuz in the past.

From Space War:

Kuwait is to buy an unspecified number of Patriot missiles from the United States, Defence Minister Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah told the state news agency KUNA on Friday. Sheikh Jaber, responding to questions about Washington’s sale of arms to Gulf allies, said “Kuwait has signed deals, not for airplanes, but for materiel such as ships and Patriot missiles.”He did not give any further details.

In July, the United States announced plans for a series of arms deals worth at least 20 billion dollars (14.6 billion euros) with Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Gulf states.

The deals are aimed at shoring up US allies in the Middle East and countering “a more aggressive Iran”, as one administration official put it.