Karachi:
A weapons contract recently notified by the United States Department of War (Dow), formerly from the Department of Defense, lists Pakistan among buyers for advanced AIM-20 air air missiles (AMRAAM), arose on Tuesday.
With this, the Pakistan Air Force is closer to additional missile actions under the administration of the president of the United States, Donald Trump.
According to the US Dow., Raytheon, the Amraam manufacturer, received a modification of more than $ 41.6 million in a “previously awarded contract (FA8675-23-C-0037)” on the basis of “firm fixed price (P00026)” for the production of the C8 and D3 variants of the missile.
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The modification, which includes Pakistan among its beneficiaries of foreign military sales, increases the total value of the contract to more than $ 2.51 billion.
“This Contract Involves Foreign Military Sales to United Kingdom, Poand, Pakistan, Germany, Finland, Australia, Romania, Qatar, Omana, Korea, Grece, Switzerland, Portugal, Singapore, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Japan, Slovakia, Denmark, Canada, Canada, Belgium, Belgium, Belgium Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Norway, Spain, Kuwait, Finland, Sweden, Taiwan, Lithuania, Isreal, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey “, establishes the notification. He adds that the order is expected to be completed at the end of May 2030.
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Although it is not clear exactly how many, if any, new Amraam missiles will be delivered to Pakistan, the development has triggered speculation about possible updates to the F-16 fleet of the Pakistan Air Force.
In the PAF service, the AMRAAM is compatible exclusively with the F-16 combat plane and it is believed that it was used to demolish the MiG-21 of the Air Force of India, the Wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman, Varthaman, during the Swift operation, in February 2019. In particular, the head of the Ala Personnel of the Wing, the Air Marshal. Ahmed Babar, visited the United States Department in July this year.
According to the Quwa Defense publication, the AIM-120C8 is the export version of the AIM-120D, the main variant of AMRAAM in the US service. The PAF currently operates the previous C5 variant, 500 of which were acquired together with its last block 52 F-16 in 2010.
