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Pakistan likely to receive advanced air-to-air missiles from US
According to the contract notified by the US Department of War, the missile work order is expected to be completed by May 30, 2030.
Pakistan is likely to receive AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) from the United States, as ties between the two countries appear to be on an uptick.
An arms contract recently notified by the US Department of War (DoW), formerly known as the Department of Defence, listed Pakistan among the 35 buyers for the missiles.
The DoW document, as seen by HT.com, said that the contract for Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles C8 and D3 variants was awarded to the Raytheon company, Tucson, Arizona. The total value of the contract stands at $2,512,389,558.
"This contract involves foreign military sales to United Kingdom, Poland, Pakistan, Germany, Finland, Australia, Romania, Qatar, Oman, Korea, Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, Singapore, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Japan, Slovakia, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Norway, Spain, Kuwait, Finland, Sweden, Taiwan, Lithuania, Isreal, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkey," the contract stated.
It further said the work order is likely to be completed by May 30, 2030.
However, it remains unclear how many AMRAAM missiles Pakistan will receive.
This comes just days after President Donald Trump's meetings with Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir, at which Trump again claimed to have a role in ending the most recent military conflict between Islamabad and Delhi.
Upgrade for Pakistan's F-16 jets?
It has sparked speculation about potential upgrades to the Pakistani Air Force's F-16 fleet. The AMRAAM is only compatible with the F-16 fighter jet in the Pakistan Air Force service, the Express Tribune reported. It was reportedly used in the conflict with India in February 2019.
The development also follows the Pakistan's air force chief Zaheer Ahmed Babar's visit to the US State Department in July this year.
What's the capabilitiy of the missiles?
The AIM-120C8 is the export variant of the AIM-120D, the current AMRAAM variant used by the US. According to Raytheon, the AMRAAM missile is integrated into the F-15A/B/C/D/E Eagle/Strike Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F/A-18 Super Hornet, F-22 Raptor, Eurofighter Typhoon, JAS-39 Gripen, Tornado and Harrier.
The newest version of AMRAAM is also operational on all F-35 Joint Strike Fighter variants.
In its air-to-air role, the missile quickly finds targets in challenging environments, while in the surface-launch role, it is the baseline weapon on NASAMS, which allows countries to use AMRAAM in either role.
NASAMS is a short to medium-range ground-based air defense system developed by Raytheon (now RTX).
