Center for analysis of world arms trade, 19th of January. The Government of Qatar intends to increase the number of “Hawk” training aircraft purchased from the British company BAE Systems, Qatar’s Defense Minister Haled bin Mohammed al-Attiyah said.
As reported by Foxbusiness.com with reference to the minister, Qatar intends to purchase nine Trainer aircraft «Hawk”, rather than six, as previously thought.
The minister’s statement is good news for BAE Systems, which last year announced plans to cut jobs at the aircraft factory in Wharton due to lack of orders.
As Center for analysis of world arms trade reported, on the 17th of September, 2017 the defense ministers of Great Britain and Qatar signed an agreement on intentions to purchase Qatar 24 multipurpose fighters “Typhoon”. It also included an option to supply 6 reactive Trainer aircraft “Hawk“. On December 10, 2017, the government of Qatar concluded a contract with BAE Systems worth about £ 5 billion (about $ 6.9 billion) for the supply of fighter aircraft, an accompanying maintenance package and training of personnel. It is assumed that the agreement will enter into force after the company receives the first payment no later than middle of 2018. As expected, shipments will begin at the end of 2022. At the same time, negotiations for the delivery of Trainer aircraft «Hawk” are still incomplete.
During 2017, Qatar implemented an option to supply 12 additional Rafal aircraft (to 24 Rafal, which were contracted earlier), ordered 24 Typhoon fighter jets, and 36 American F-15QA fighters. If all these programs are implemented, the fleet of Qatar Air Force will increase from 12 obsolete “Mirage 2000” to 96 modern multipurpose combat aircraft. Such a sharp increase in the fleet of fighters necessitated the purchase of additional Trainer aircraft.
Source: mickeystix / www.fightercontrol.co.uk