UAE signs $1.4 billion defense contracts, including drones

[No Elephants]

UAE signs $1.4 billion defense contracts, including drones

BU DHABI | Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:16pm EST

(Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has signed defense contracts worth 5.2 billion dirhams ($1.4 billion), including one for unmanned aerial drones, a spokesman for the country's military said on Monday.

The largest deal, worth 1.4 billion dirhams, was for 750 mine-resistant, ambush-protected, all-terrain vehicles from Oshkosh Corp.

The UAE's armed forces also agreed to buy an undisclosed number of Predator drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), from privately-owned U.S. firm General Atomics in a deal worth 722 million dirhams.

"UAVs are significant for any armed forces in present times. There is a lot of demand for these," Major General Obeid al-Ketbi told reporters at the largest arms exhibition in the Middle East, held in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE awarded the contract to purchase the drones to a local company, International Golden Group, which will buy them from the U.S. firm. The deal marks General Atomics' first sale of an unarmed version of its Predator drones in the Middle East

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are among several countries, according to diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, asking U.S. officials to buy armed drones but which have been rebuffed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/18/us-emirates-drones-idUSBRE91H0AY20130218

What could possibly go wrong?

[formercia]

1. Proxy Drone Wars

They all look alike to me.

[No Elephants]

2. Good one.

[Enthusiast]

3. " What could possibly go wrong?"

I thought the same.