Iraq To Buy US Air Traffic Control Equipment Worth $700 Million

Iraq has requested a $700 million Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of air traffic control and landing systems, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced.

Iraq has requested the commercially available FAA Air Traffic Control (ATC) Equipment Suite and Airfield Navigational Aids Suites for air bases in Tikrit, Al Basra, Al Kut, and Taji. The rebuilding of these air bases will improve Iraq’s ability to control its own airspace.

If it goes ahead, the FMS would include associated equipment including ASR-11 airport surveillance radars, ATC automation system with controller consoles, AutoTrac II airfield support and navigation suites, primary search radars and mono-pulse secondary surveillance radars.

The Airfield Navigation Aids Suite includes Very High Frequency Omni-directional Range (VORTAC) and instrument landing systems with distance measuring equipment; airfield lighting systems with flush mounted lights for the runway and taxiways; and Air Traffic Control Tower Equipment Suite.  

This request follows an announcement in January that Iraq is seeking to purchase 24 AH-64E Apache Longbow attack helicopters from the US under a $4.8 billion FMS.