Morocco among recipients of Raytheon’s AMRAAM Missiles

Morocco is on a list of twenty-two of the United States’ allies that will be delivered Raytheon’s Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM).

The major US defense contractor, Raytheon, said in a Press release that the US Air Force, Navy and 22 foreign allies tapped the company with a $768 million contract for its AMRAAM.

 

Besides Morocco, four other Arab countries will get the missile. These are Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

The Department of Defense’s award notice does not specify how many missiles the contract will procure, but it does call for missile production, captive air training missiles, guidance sections, AMRAAM telemetry system, spares and other production engineering support hardware, the company said, adding that the contract finalized last week is expected to run through Feb. 28, 2023.

The new military equipment to be delivered to Morocco comes as part of a series of military deals concluded between the US, Morocco’s largest arms supplier, and the North African country. The military deals seek to boost the Royal Armed Forces military equipment and capacity.

Morocco’s arms deals with the US in 2019 totaled $10.3 billion. The deals included the sale of $3.8 billion worth of 25 F-16 aircraft and associated equipment. The US also upgraded Morocco’s existing fleet of F-16 fighter jets for a cost of $985 million.

In November, the US State Department approved the sale of 36 Apache attack helicopters and related equipment to the Kingdom for an estimated cost of $4.25 billion.

Recent data from the Forum on the Arms Trade from the US Foreign Military Sales program show that Morocco has outranked Saudi Arabia in US arms acquisition in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The versatile AMRAAM missile has been in service since the 1990s, with up to 37 countries utilizing it on a variety of aircraft.