General Atomics Wins Approval to Sell First Predator Drones in Middle East - Bloomberg: "General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. said it won U.S. approval for an export version of the Predator drone, clearing the way for the first sales of the unmanned aircraft in the Middle East.
“There’s interest from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates,” Frank Pace, president of the aircraft systems group at the closely held company, said today in an interview at the Farnborough Air Show near London.
General Atomics recently received U.S. State Department approval to offer an unarmed Predator model to countries beyond the NATO bloc, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Pace said. That would allow sales in the Middle East and elsewhere to governments previously ineligible to buy the planes, he said.
U.S. Predators are now used to monitor and strike targets in Iraq, Afghanistan and the border areas of Pakistan. Selling the aircraft to countries in the Middle East may ease regional opposition to the surveillance while raising new issues related to how the buyers fly them, one analyst said."
