US approves sale of Abrams tanks to Bahrain

The US Department of State has approved the sale of its M1A2 Abrams tanks, as well as related vehicles and equipment, to Bahrain for $2.2 billion.

Here's What We Know

The deal is estimated to be worth $2.2 billion. It has been submitted to the US Congress for final approval.

Bahrain wanted to buy 50 M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams tanks, as well as additional support vehicles: eight M1150 ABV engineering vehicles, eight M110 AVLB bridge builders, eight Heavy Assault Structures (HASBs), and several M978A4 trucks (HEMTTs) with material handling systems.

The Royal Bahrain Army's current tank fleet consists of about 100 M60A3s received since 1987 (with another 80 in service).

The potential sale also includes 100 M240 7.62mm twin machine guns, AGT1500 gas turbine engines; 6,000 M1002 120mm multi-purpose tracer rounds and 5,760 M1147 120mm high explosive multi-purpose tracer rounds.

Future deliveries will also include M2A1 Browning heavy machine guns, which will be equipped with CROWS-LP remote-controlled launchers.

Source: DSCA