By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was approving military sales totaling over $8.6 billion to Middle Eastern allies Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The announcements came as the U.S. and Israel's war against Iran marked nine weeks since its start and more than three weeks since a fragile ceasefire came into effect.
Friday's announcements by the State Department included approving military sales to Qatar of Patriot air and missile defense replenishment services costing $4.01 billion and of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) costing $992.4 million.
They also included approval of the sale to Kuwait of an integrated battle command system costing $2.5 billion and to Israel of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems costing $992.4 million.
The State Department approved a sale to the UAE of APKWS for $147.6 million.
The principal contractor in the APKWS sales to Qatar, Israel and the UAE was BAE Systems, the State Department said.
RTX and Lockheed Martin were the principal contractors in the integrated battle command system sale to Kuwait and in the Patriot air and missile defense replenishment sale to Qatar, the State Department added.
Northrop Grumman was also a principal contractor in the Kuwaiti sale.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Ryan Patrick Jones and Christian Martinez; editing by Costas Pitas)
