Big money in the desert (Qatar/UAE fighter purchases)

Looks like there are some very large deals coming down the pipe in the Gulf.

Qatar is looking at buying 72 modern fighters with the UAE looking at buying ~85 new fighters.

DUBAI, WASHINGTON, LONDON AND PARIS — Qatar’s plans to select a fighter as the basis for a six-fold increase in its combat jet power have been delayed by a US request to extend the deadline for submission of request for proposals (RfP), according to executives familiar with the requirement.

Meanwhile, with politicians, senior military officers and industry leaders coming to the Dubai Airshow, which starts Nov. 17, speculation continues as to whether the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) procurement intentions will become clearer this month.

Bids to supply the Qatari Air Force with up to 72 jets were meant to be lodged with the Defense Ministry in Doha in September. BAE Systems, offering its Typhoon, and Dassault Aviation, offering the Rafale, complied with the bid schedule. The US, however, with a foreign military sales proposal involving the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and the F-15 Strike Eagle sought, and were granted, a three-month extension.

The Pentagon is now expected to submit its offer in December after the sales effort had been slowed by what executives, who asked not to be named, said were procedural issues at the US State Department.

…

Qatar was hoping to decide on a winning contractor as soon as the end of the year, but with the process slowed by the US, naming a winning contractor has likely been delayed to at least the second quarter of 2014.

Qatar’s request was for 36 jets plus 36 options to replace an aging fighter force of 12 Dassault Mirage 2000Ds and a handful of combat-capable Alpha Jet trainers.

Several industry executives said it’s possible Qatar may opt to split the buy and take a similar route to Gulf Cooperation Council partners Saudi Arabia and UAE with part of the Air Force being supplied by the US and the other part by Europe.

“What I think they may well end up doing is buy 18 and 18 from two separate suppliers,” one executive said. “You stand up two operational squadrons, get in the support and training infrastructure required and then exercise options to bring two further squadrons of similar aircraft.”

Some executive see the procurement as part of a build up in the long-term hope of getting F-35 joint strike fighters cleared for sale to the Arabian Gulf nations.

quite a bit more at the link:

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20131110/DEFREG04/311100014/

Elsewhere…

The United Arab Emirates is moving closer to a long-awaited decision on whether to buy up to 60 UK-backed Eurofighter Typhoons or French Rafale fighters. It is also expected to buy 25 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, sources familiar with the deal told Reuters.

http://gulfbusiness.com/2013/11/100bn-boeing-order-to-dominate-dubai-show/