Pakistan will receive AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) from the United States, marking a fresh phase in defence cooperation between the two countries, the US Department of War (DoW) said in an official statement.
A newly modified arms contract notified by the US Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense) listed Pakistan among the confirmed foreign buyers of the missile system made by Raytheon. The company received an additional USD 41.6 million on a previously awarded contract (FA8675-23-C-0037) for the production of the AMRAAM’s C8 and D3 variants, raising the total contract value to more than USD 2.51 billion, the DoW said.
However, the exact number of missiles Pakistan will receive is not specified in the statement.
The deal also covers several other countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. Work under the agreement is scheduled for completion by May 2030.
The inclusion of Pakistan in the AMRAAM programme has triggered speculation about upgrades to the Pakistan Air Force’s F-16 fleet. The AMRAAM is compatible only with the F-16s operated by the PAF and was reportedly used in 2019 to down an Indian Air Force MiG-21 flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.
According to defence publication Quwa, the AIM-120C8 — part of the new order — is the export version of the AIM-120D, the most advanced AMRAAM currently in US service. Pakistan currently operates the older C5 variant, around 500 of which were acquired with its Block 52 F-16s in 2010.
The development followed a notable improvement in Islamabad-Washington relations. In Washington DC last month, Donald Trump met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, who had earlier held a rare one-on-one meeting with the United States Presdient at the Oval Office in June.
Even PAF Chief Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar visited the US State Department in July, and ties between the two countries have warmed since the brief India-Pakistan conflict in May this year.
After the clash, Pakistan credited Trump for helping broker a ceasefire and even proposed his name for the Nobel Peace Prize. India, meanwhile, rejected the claim and said that the truce followed direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both sides.
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