State Dept. appoves $400M helicopter support deal for Kuwait

Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Congress has received notification of a possible U.S. Foreign Military Sales deal with Kuwait for support services for AH-64D Apache Helicopters.

The U.S Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which manages the FMS program, said the possible sale has State Department approval and is worth $400 million.

"Kuwait requires continued support for equipment already procured to ensure national security interests and objectives are met," the agency said in its notification. "The defense articles maintained are used solely by the Ministry of Defense to protect the sovereign border and to conduct operations and training to include joint exercises with the U.S. military."

The contract for sustainment and contractor logistics support would include: Apache maintainer unit support, depot-level support, training devices, helmets, simulators, generators, transportation, wheeled vehicles and organization equipment, spare and repair parts.

Also included would be support equipment, tools and test equipment, technical data and publications, personnel training and training equipment, U.S. government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistics support.

U.S. companies potentially involved in the proposed sale would be Boeing, Longbow Limited, Lockheed Martin, and DynCorp International.

Four U.S. government representatives and 65 contractor representatives would be required in Kuwait for up to five years if the sales deal is implemented, the agency said.