{"id":1046,"date":"2017-01-28T23:52:35","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T21:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2017-01-29T00:07:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-28T22:07:32","slug":"kenya-to-get-418-million-military-equipment-from-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=1046","title":{"rendered":"Kenya to get $418 million military equipment from the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The U.S. Department of State has approved a $418 million contract for military aircrafts and weapons to be delivered to Kenya to aid in the fight against al Shabaab.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"UAE<\/a>

UAE AT-802U Dubai Airshow 2013 (Photo by Copyright \u00a9 Peter Reoch \/ UK Airshow Review)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Among the packages are twelve Air Tractor AT- 802L converted cropdusters, two AT-504 trainer aircraft and some weapons, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced on Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe platform maximizes the Kenyan Defense Force\u2019s close air support ability because it is a short-field aircraft capable of using precision munitions and cost effective logistics and maintenance,\u201d the agency added.<\/p>\n

\"AT-504<\/a>

The US State Department has approved the requested purchase by Kenya of twelve Air Tractor AT- 802L and two AT-504 trainer aircraft under the US Foreign Military Sale program. The estimated cost is 418 million USD. (Photo by airheadsfly.com)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n


\nThe sale of the military equipment is pending final approval by the U.S. Congress.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The arms deal approved by the State Department covers the UK, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Kenya at a cost of $1.8 billion dollars in total.<\/p>\n

Kenyan security forces are involved in the fight against Somali Islamist group al Shabaab which has extended its target across the border into Kenya.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>

One of Kenya’s F-5E. (Photo by tuko.co.ke)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Many Kenyans have died in the fight against the insurgents in Somalia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0The concerned lot had its attention particularly drawn to 12 Air Tactor AT-802L pictured above that is part of a deal comprising weapons, two AT-504 trainer aircraft, technical support and program management.<\/div>\n

The AT-802L is a light attack aircraft that the Kenya Defence Forces is planning to use in the war against terror.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Weapons including guns and bombs can be fixed under the aircraft’s wings and can still move at a higher speed than most helicopters used by KDF suring certain aerial attacks on al-Shabaab in Somalia.<\/p>\n

The plane can be deployed in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), precision-strike, command and control, counter-insurgency (COIN), close-air support, weapons training, forward arming and refuelling point missions, airforce-technology.com reports.<\/p>\n

\"Kenya<\/a>

Kenya Air Force troops attend to an F-5E \u00a0(Photo by tuko.co.ke)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Kenya is set to use the planes to supplement the old F-5E Tiger II\u00a0fighter jets since the new aircrafts are cost-effective and only need a short runway of less than 300 metres to land and take off.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This means, that unlike F-5E Tiger II fighter jets, the Air Tractor can be deployed to Somalia from a small airstrip in Mandera.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source:<\/strong>\u00a0Ismail Akwei –\u00a0africanews.com<\/a> – 25 01 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of State has approved a $418 million contract for military aircrafts and weapons to be delivered to Kenya to aid in the fight against al Shabaab. Among the packages are twelve...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,36,19,1,28,26,18],"tags":[1066,1065,1071,1070,1067,1068,1069,898,1062,1064,1063,659,1072,1073,1061,194],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1059,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions\/1059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}