Rabat – The US Air Force has awarded Raytheon Technologies, an American aerospace and defense developer and manufacturer, a $212 million fighter aircraft engine delivery order to the Moroccan military.
Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, an Ohio-based auxiliary branch of the US Air Force, awarded Raytheon a $212,053,200 (MAD 1.9 billion) delivery order for the F100-PW-229 install engines, as part of the unit’s “production program’s indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract,” according to a statement from the US Department of Defense (DoD).
Raytheon will manufacture the engines, with an expected completion date of June 30, 2025, in its East Hartford, Connecticut, manufacturing unit. The DoD statement notes that the contract is a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract with Morocco, which has been completed through the sole-source acquisition process, a process that takes place when there is only one supplier available for the desired product.
Morocco has requested the US government for 25 Lockheed Martin’s F-16C/D Block 72 jets, 29 Pratt & Whitney F100-229 engines, additional”related” equipment, the result of an upcoming $3.9 billion (MAD 34.9 billion) deal with FMS, according to GovCon Wire.
The US Agency for International Trade reports that sales of military equipment to Morocco doubled between 2019 and 2020, increasing from $4.01 billion (MAD 36 billion) to $8.5 billion (MAD 76 billion), as part of Morocco’s effort to increase military capability.
Morocco purchased the PATRIOT Air Defense System, which is a medium-range surface-to-air missile defense system, the 25 aforementioned F-16 aircrafts, 24 new Apache attack helicopters, as well as a G550 reconnaissance aircraft.
Morocco is the largest buyer of US military equipment in Africa, as well as a significant partner of French and Spanish weapons manufacturers.
