UAE signs major missile deals with Raytheon

The United Arab Emirates announced yesterday it had signed deals worth more than $1.6 billion for the purchase of Patriot missile launchers from US arms giant Raytheon, state media said. The deals, inked on the second day of an international military exhibition in Abu Dhabi, come a day after the UAE announced it would buy $353 million worth of Patriot missiles from Raytheon.

Some $3.2 billion in deals have been signed between the oil-rich state and western companies at the expo, set to run through Thursday, staterun WAM news agency said. The UAE, long a key ally of the United States, maintains close ties with the adminstration of President Donald Trump.

The US is preparing to build a military hospital, funded by the UAE, in Abu Dhabi to treat Emirati soldiers and American troops based in the region, a US army official said Sunday. The facility would be “very similar” to the one in Landstuhl, Germany, the biggest American hospital outside the US, said Lieutenant General Charles Hooper, director of the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency.