U.S. To Sell F-15s With AESA To Saudi Arabia

By Aviation Week :  U.S. State and Defense department officials are detailing a long-expected foreign military sale to Saudi Arabia, including 84 new Boeing F-15SA “Saudi Advanced” fighters with APG-63(v)3 active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, as well as upgrades to 70 existing F-15s.
The total package — four separate deals amounting to no more than $60 billion if fully approved and purchased — includes several fighter and helicopter missiles, bombs and precision munitions, dozens of AH-64D Block III Apache helos, 72 UH-60M Black Hawks, 36 AH-6i light attack helos, 12 MD-530F light turbine helos, aircraft engines, spares, radars, and other items and systems. Besides Boeing, major providers include Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky, MD Helicopters, General Electric and ITT.
State Department officials say the deals collectively represent a strategic alignment with the U.S., especially the U.S. Army and Air Force, and would run 15-20 years. They also claim there is no “high-level” Israeli opposition and that the Obama administration move has enough key congressional support to carry through.
Regarding that point, Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state at the bureau of political-military affairs, told reporters Oct. 20 that as part of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s notification to Congress of the new deals, administration officials have had “adequate” consultations with oversight lawmakers.
Congress, nonetheless, has frowned on Saudi sales before, with opposition coming from a broader set of lawmakers than only those on foreign affairs and military committees (Aerospace DAILY, April 29, 2008). Support for Israel is a common, bipartisan campaign issue and previous deals have run into opposition for the level of technology being sold to Arab countries.
Still, congressional action blocking such sales is rare and hard to codify into deal-breaking opposition. Lawmakers can block a foreign military sale by passing a verbatim Joint Resolution of Disapproval in both chambers during the same session of Congress.
But even if there is widespread opposition to the Saudi sales, this session of Congress may find it difficult to pass disapproval legislation because lawmakers do not reconvene until mid-November, after elections that could see political power shift on Capitol Hill. Once back, lawmakers face an almost historic level of unfinished business, including regular appropriations across the whole U.S. government.
U.S. armament of allies in the Persian Gulf against Iran has burgeoned since the George W. Bush administration announced the buildup in the summer of 2007 (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 16, 2008).