Boeing Contract Signals Preparatory Work for F-15 Delivery to Qatar

Boeing has been awarded a $68 million contract action for the Qatar F-15QA (Qatari Advanced) fighter aircraft program. This contract action supports Foreign Military Sales requirement for the Qatar Emiri Air Force.

It provides for maintenance and logistics support for aircraft and training devices besides conducting pre-delivery training for the F-15 jets meant for Qatar Emiri Air Force, a US DoD release said Monday.

Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 21, 2021.  FMS funds in the amount of $33,349,400 are being obligated at the time of award.

Earlier, In August 2019, Boeing was awarded a $500 million contract to provide aircrew and maintenance training for the Qatari Emiri Air Force’s fleet of 36 F-15QAs.

Qatar had signed a $12 billion deal with the US government for 36 F-15QAs in June 2017 in a deal widely seen to save the F-15 product line.

The F-15QA is similar to Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA Advanced Eagle, which includes Raytheon’s APG-63(V)3 AESA radar, fly-by-wire control systems and 11 under-wing weapons stations. The F15-QA will be able to carry 16 AIM-120 AMRAAM, four AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles and precision-guided air-to-surface missiles.

During the same timeline, Qatar has signed up to buy French Dassault Rafale jets besides 24 Eurofighter Typhoon multirole jets and nine Hawk trainers. Both deals have come around the time of Qatar’s dispute with Saudi Arabia in which its  much larger neighbor prevented overflights from Doha.