Qatar Airways denies commercial jet deal with Boeing tied to F-15 military sales

Washington Business Journal ^ | Oct 7, 2016

[sukhoi-30mki]

The head of Qatar Airways firmly denied that the company delayed a deal to buy up to 100 jetliners from The Boeing Co. to pressure the U.S. to approve the sale of fighter jets to Qatar.

The comments from Akbar Al Baker came Friday during a news conference in D.C. in which state-owned Qatar Airlines and Boeing inked an $18.6 billion deal for 30 Dreamliners and up to 80 other jets.

"We don’t relate anything to anything,” Al Baker said when asked by a reporter about possible connection. "Qatar Airways has this independent policy ordering airplanes. So nothing is attached to anything.”

The deal for the commercial airliners came just a week after the U.S. government gave initial approval for up to $7 billion in F-15 fighter jet sales to Qatar and Kuwait. Qatar was approved for 36, while Kuwait will be allowed to buy 28.

Citing sources familiar with the situation, Reuters reported that the Qatari government had delayed the signing to put pressure on the U.S. government to more quickly the fighter jets.

When I asked company executives on Friday whether the commercial deal would help strengthen the defense relationship between the two, they avoided specifics.

"Qatar and the United States — not any company — has a very close defense relationship,” Al Baker responded. "Qatar is a very strong ally of the United States."

[sukhoi-30mki]

Boeing

[dp0622]

Is it me or is there a nearly unprecedented build up of military hardware across the world.

I wonder how many fighter jets can be actively used in war across the world at this current moment.

I wonder how many tanks there are?

[glasseye]

Sandies...
In the sky.

[terycarl]

every fighter plane or other piece of military equipment that we produce and sell to ANY foreign country should include a non-detectable microchip so that in the case of misuse (captured equipment in Iraq) we could locate and destroy the product.