BY MARCUS WEISGERBER
Officials deny linking the
military and commercial deals, but insiders say otherwise.
The White House’s
recent decision to allow the sale of F-15 fighter jets to Qatar helped to seal the $18.6
billion purchase of 100 Boeing jetliners announced Friday by Qatar Airways,
according to people with knowledge of the deal.
Executives with Boeing and state-owned Qatar Airways denied
links between the military and commercial sales.
“The Qatar Airways has its independent policy of ordering
airplanes,” CEO Akbar Al Baker said when asked whether the two sales
were connected. “So nothing is attached to anything.”
But the jetliner deal — which has been under negotiation for
months — was finalized less than two weeks after the Obama administration approved the 36 F-15 fighter jets for
Qatar on Sept. 28, people close to the agreement say.
The up-to-$4 billion fighter jet deal has been in the works for
years, but has reportedly been on hold while the U.S. negotiated a
10-year, $38 billion security package with
Israel. Israel has reportedly raised objections to Qatar
buying F-15s.
Last week, White House officials informally told members of
Congress that the F-15 sale would get approval, but the State Department and
Pentagon have yet to formally announce the deal, which reportedly has options for up to 72
fighters. Boeing builds the F-15 in St. Louis.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways and Boeing executives called the
commercial airliner deal historic.
“Today’s announcement really exemplifies the benefits of a
global partnership and how trade and innovation go hand-in-hand in an
increasingly interconnected world to make it a better and a safer place,” said
Ray Conner, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The airliner deal includes the purchase of 30 787-9 Dreamliners
and 10 777-ER aircraft, valued at $11.7 billion, according to Boeing. The
twin-engine planes are used on long-haul, intercontinental routes. Qatar also
signed a “letter of intent” for 60 737 MAX 8 aircraft, which are used
for shorter regional flights, worth $6.9 billion. Finalizing that deal would be
a huge score for Boeing; currently, Qatar Airways flies only European-made
Airbus single-aisle planes on these regional routes.
Conner said the deal would affect 104,000 jobs across America,
not just in the Seattle area where Boeing builds commercial aircraft.
Boeing and Qatar Airways consummated the sale Friday at a lavish
signing ceremony at the Four Seasons hotel in Washington. VIPs in attendance
included Anthony Blinken, the deputy secretary of state and former deputy
national security adviser to President Obama; and Qatar Finance Minister Ali
Shareef Al Emadi. Blinken and Al Emadi sat on the dais with Conner and Al
Baker, but left before a question-and-answer session with journalists.
“A critical and steadfast partner to the United States, Qatar
has always played an outside diplomatic and strategic role in its own region,
but also increasingly beyond,” Blinken said. “It’s an influential contributor
to political, security and economic progress in the Middle East and we are
proud of our deepening cooperation on a very diverse range of issues.”
Blinken also touted Qatar’s participation in the U.S.-led
coalition of nations fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The deal
“will bring us even closer together,” he said.
Al Baker noted that Qatar is home to Al Udeid Air Base, the
location of U.S. Air Forces Central Command’s combined air and space
operations center, which oversees the airstrike campaign against ISIS.
“Qatar is a very strong ally of the United States,” he said.
“This relationship will only get stronger, but has no relation to Boeing or
Qatar Airways or Qatar’s aircraft orders that we placed today.”
Original post: defenseone
Strange that the F-15E cost only $111 million
per copy must be the old quoted price it is more likely that it will cost $250
million a copy. Several years ago it was
quoted to S.Korea for $150 million a copy.
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