Kuwaiti government requests additional defence funding

[Zarvan]

Kuwait is to buy 28 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to augment, and then replace, its Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet fleet. Source: Eurofighter

The Kuwaiti government has issued a request to the country's parliament to approve a defence budget supplement valued at KWD6.1 billion (USD19.9 billion), local media reported on 1 December.

Kuwait's al-Rai newspaper and Reuters reported that the country's minister of state for cabinet affairs, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah al-Sabah, confirmed that a request for additional funding had been made by the government, but declined to confirm the value of the amount. The value of the proposed defence supplement represents a value four times the size of the country's total defence budget in 2015.

The news of the additional funding, which is reportedly to be used for procurement over a ten year period, comes as Kuwait signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Eurofighter consortium in September for 28 aircraft to replace its fleet of Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet fighter aircraft and a Letter of Acceptance with the French government in October covering 24 Airbus Helicopters H225M helicopters, light armoured vehicles, and naval vessel upgrades.

It is also unclear whether the country is still looking to pursue a procurement with US aircraft manufacturer Boeing for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which would operate in conjunction to the country's future Typhoon fleet.

Kuwait's national defence budget is submitted to the country's parliament for approval, where it is debated in closed sessions separate from the country's main budget. Top level defence expenditure is published by the government, with little transparency on the breakdown of the rest of the defence budget.

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Kuwaiti government requests additional defence funding | IHS Jane's 360

 

[Sinnerman108]

Hmm .. interesting.
So Euro Fighter will be the GCC's airplane for choice.
I don't know what Kuwait wants to do with it;

but wonder where the F-18s will go to ?