Local Editor

The US State Department has approved a possible shipment to Saudi Arabia for nine UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, packed with heavy weapons at an estimated cost of US $495 million, according to Defense News on Wednesday. This comes amid a Saudi-led aggression that has been striking Yemen for over six months now.

Twenty M240H machine guns and additional equipment is listed in the contract as well.

The move flies in the face of international calls on Western powers to halt weapons deliveries to the Saudis, whose airstrikes continue to pound Yemen further into humanitarian crisis.

According to the War Security Cooperation Agency, "The proposed sale will support US foreign policy and national security objectives by improving the security of an important regional partner".  

The principal contractors would be Sikorsky Aircraft and General Electric Aircraft.

Earlier this month [October], Amnesty International issued a report calling on the US and the UK to halt arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia in light of the hundreds of civilians killed and injured in an ongoing air aggression launched by a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since late March.

According to the United Nations [UN], hundreds of civilians have been killed in Yemen in the course of the conflict and around 80 percent of the country’s population is currently in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

The airstrikes have not been authorized by the UN.