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The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are about to receive several batches of Patriot missiles to protect against an Iranian missile attack. Intelligence Online [subscription] (February 14, 2008: "A Patriot Missile Shield Against Iran; Gulf Cooperation Council") reports that the UAE and Kuwait hope that all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council will become similarly equipped to form a "single, seamless shield."

Winning the blessings of Congress last month, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are to shortly finalize the sale of 288 Patriot Advanced Capability- 3 (PAC-3) missiles to the United Arab Emirates. Already equipped with PAC-2 weapons (the previous version), Kuwait is to acquire 88 PAC-3s. The already-sizeable contracts (USD 9 billion for the Emirates and EUR 1.4 billion for Kuwait) could shortly be followed by similar agreements with Qatar and even with Bahrain and Oman.

The acquisition of Patriot by Kuwait and the UAE forms part of what is a still secret project to build an anti-missile shield against Iran that could be deployed throughout the Gulf....

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REVISED with additional excerpting.

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UPDATE: Also see: U.S. To Sell Patriot Missile defense Systems to UAE (Pat Dollard, Young Americans Documentary).

Labels: Gulf Cooperation Council, Iran, Kuwait, Lockheed Martin, Patriot missiles, Qatar, Raytheon, United Arab Emirates