Kuwait orders $1B NASAMS air defense amid rising Gulf tensions

Kuwait is buying a billion dollars’ worth of one of the most combat-proven air defense systems currently in production, and the contract announced May 26 is already moving into manufacturing.

Raytheon, the Massachusetts-based defense contractor and subsidiary of RTX Corporation, received a $1 billion contract from the U.S. Army on May 26 to deliver NASAMS fire units to Kuwait through the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Sales program, the mechanism by which Washington sells approved weapon systems to allied governments. The full contract value of just over $1 billion was obligated immediately, meaning the money was committed in full at the time of signing rather than in installments, and work is scheduled for completion by May 26, 2031. All manufacturing will take place at Raytheon’s facility in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

NASAMS, which stands for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, is a ground-based air defense system jointly developed by Raytheon and Norwegian defense company Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace. It is designed to shoot down aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles by firing interceptors including the AIM-120 AMRAAM, the longer-range AMRAAM-ER, and the AIM-9X Sidewinder, all weapons originally developed for aircraft but adapted for ground launch. The system’s fire distribution center, which handles target tracking and engagement decisions, is a Kongsberg product, while Raytheon supplies the missiles and the broader system integration. NASAMS has demonstrated a 94 percent interception rate in active combat operations, engaging cruise missiles, aircraft, and drones across multiple conflict environments, a track record that has transformed it from a successful niche platform into one of the most sought-after air defense systems on the global market.

Tom Laliberty, president of Land and Air Defense Systems at Raytheon, said in a statement accompanying the Kuwait contract announcement: “Sustained combat success has driven surging international demand for NASAMS, proving its ability to neutralize aircraft, drones and advanced cruise missiles.” Laliberty added that RTX was “investing heavily across the company to accelerate the production of critical air defense capabilities like NASAMS” to meet the demand. The Kuwait contract is one piece of a much larger procurement picture that includes the AMRAAM-ER full-rate production contract awarded in April 2026, which named Kuwait alongside Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, and Taiwan as customers.

Kuwait’s interest in NASAMS has been building for years. The U.S. State Department cleared the potential sale of a NASAMS-based Medium Range Air Defense System to Kuwait in October 2022, with an estimated program value of up to $3 billion covering seven AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radars, 63 AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM missiles, 63 AMRAAM-ER missiles, 63 AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II missiles, and associated equipment. The $1 billion contract announced May 26 represents the production execution phase of that acquisition, the point at which the hardware actually begins to be built rather than approved and negotiated.

Kuwait sits at the northern tip of the Persian Gulf, sharing a border with Iraq and a maritime boundary with Iran, and its air defense requirements are shaped directly by the regional threat environment that has only intensified since Operation Epic Fury launched in February 2026. The country hosts thousands of U.S. military personnel and serves as a critical logistics and basing hub for American operations across the Middle East. Its existing air defense architecture consists of Patriot missile batteries and shorter-range systems, but those assets cover different threat tiers than NASAMS, which specializes in the medium-range cruise missile and drone interception mission. Adding NASAMS gives Kuwait a layered defense that can engage threats the Patriot system is not optimized to address cost-effectively, particularly the swarms of low-cost drones and subsonic cruise missiles that have become standard tools of regional conflict.

The production approach Raytheon is using for this contract reflects the broader industrial challenge the company has been navigating since demand for NASAMS accelerated sharply after 2022. To compress delivery timelines and reduce costs, Raytheon disclosed it is executing large-scale material purchases across the supply chain, buying components at volume to lower unit costs and secure production capacity ahead of the manufacturing schedule. This approach sacrifices some flexibility in exchange for speed and affordability, and signals that Raytheon is treating the Kuwait contract as part of a sustained production run rather than a one-off sale.

The Sentinel radar that serves as the eyes of the NASAMS system, formally designated AN/MPQ-64, is a phased-array radar capable of detecting and tracking more than 60 targets simultaneously across a 360-degree field of view, providing the fire control picture that the system’s computers use to prioritize threats and assign interceptors. Each NASAMS battery typically consists of multiple launchers carrying six missiles each, a fire distribution center, and one or more radars, giving the operator the ability to engage several threats simultaneously from dispersed positions that complicate an adversary’s targeting problem. The system’s reliance on the same AMRAAM missiles used by fighter aircraft means Kuwait’s ground-based air defense and any allied air forces operating in the region draw from a common missile logistics chain, simplifying sustainment in a region where interoperability between Gulf partners and U.S. forces is a standing priority.