The State Department has cleared Italy’s $738 million foreign military sales request to buy the Block 5 variant of the MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, related equipment and services from the U.S. government.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Thursday General Atomics will serve as the principal contractor in the proposed sale, which includes six MQ-9 Block 5 unmanned aircraft systems, three MQ-9 mobile ground control stations, 12 AN/DAS-4 multispectral target systems and nine LYNX AN/APY-8 Block 20A synthetic aperture radars.
The FMS request also covers Reaper/Predator engines, ruggedized aircraft maintenance test stations and other non-major defense equipment items, satellite communications Earth terminal subsystems, precision navigation, spare parts, maintenance, classified and unclassified software delivery, government and contractor engineering, technical, program and logistics support services.
The European country will use the equipment and services from the proposed sale to improve its MQ-9 aircraft fleet and advance NATO’s interoperability and security policy goals to meet existing and future threats.
DSCA informed Congress of the FMS agreement Thursday.
