Qatar to Buy 24 Typhoon Fighters from Britain

Qatar's Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah and his British counterpart Michael Fallon signed a "statement of intent" for the UK to sell 24 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets to Doha

Qatar signed an initial order for 24 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets from the UK. The deal was reached on Sunday in the Qatari capital of Doha.

"This will be the first major defense contract with Qatar, one of the UK's strategic partners," UK Defense Minister Michael Fallon said in a statement. "This is an important moment in our defense relationship and the basis for even closer defense cooperation between our two countries. We also hope that this will help enhance security within the region across all Gulf allies." 

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a joint project between British defense group BAE Systems, France's Airbus, and Italy's Finmeccanica.

While the value of the deal was not revealed, Bloomberg stated that at a price of $122 million per plane plus further servicing work, the deal could be worth as much as 8.6 billion pounds for the three Eurofighter partners, based on estimates by analysts at UBS Group AG.

"BAE Systems welcomes a formal Statement of Intent between the governments of the UK and Qatar signed today in Doha," a company spokesperson said. "Discussions are ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."

You might be interested also