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The State Department has approved more than $8.6 billion in arms sales to Israel, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates without congressional review.
Some shit you should know before you dig in: The US-Israel conflict against Iran has eaten into munitions stockpiles across the region. Since the war kicked off Feb 28, the US and Israel have bombed the shit out of Iran, and Iran has responded by hammering Israel and the Gulf countries that host US bases with ballistic missiles and drones, with the UAE alone getting hit by more than 500 ballistic missiles and 2,500 drones. The heavy back-and-forth has burned through US-made Patriot interceptors and other defensive munitions at a pace that Pentagon officials are now openly worried about, since interceptors of this kind take years to manufacture, leaving less in the cupboard if a fight with China over Taiwan ever kicks off. Reports also surfaced that some European allies (the UK, Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia) should brace for slow weapons deliveries since the Iran war is draining what’s in stock. Israel also moved Iron Dome gear over to the UAE on the down-low during the war to help shoot down what Iran was throwing at the Emiratis, and Qatar reached out to the US for more interceptors, worried its own supply was getting thin. A fragile ceasefire has been in place for over three weeks, but talks are stalled and Trump has continued to indicate that the US may resume strikes in Iran.
What’s going on now: Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked an emergency provision to fast-track the sales to Qatar, Kuwait, Israel, and the UAE, skipping the review period that Congress normally gets under the Arms Export Control Act. The State Department said in a series of Friday night announcements that each sale was “in the national security interests of the United States.”
Qatar takes the biggest chunk with $4.01 billion in Patriot air and missile defense replenishment and another $992.4 million in Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS), followed by Kuwait at $2.5 billion for an integrated battle command system, Israel at $992.4 million in APKWS, and the UAE at $147.6 million in APKWS. The primary contractors on the deals are BAE Systems, RTX, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. This makes three emergency declarations Trump’s team has used during the Iran war to push weapons deals through without Congress weighing in.
Democrats slammed the move, with Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, saying the White House is using the emergency loophole to keep Congress out of decisions on a war most Americans don’t want. “This arms transfer reflects a broader pattern: ignoring the law, bypassing Congress and making major national security decisions without transparency or accountability.”
As of now, there’s no firm timeline on when any of these munitions will actually show up, given that ramping up production takes years.






