The United Arab Emirates announced a major military deal with South Korea, through which it said it was seeking to strengthen its defense means by acquiring M-SAM Air Defense systems.
The UAE Ministry of Defense announced in a Twitter post, its formal intention to purchase a South Korean air defense system.
More specifically the UAE announced:
“The UAE Ministry of Defense intends to acquire the Korean Air Defense System (M-SAM), which will constitute a qualitative addition to the capabilities of the national air defense, explaining that the value of the deal may reach about 3.5 billion US dollars (equivalent to about 12.9 billion dirhams).” the statement concludes.
The KM-SAM it was developed in Russia by the Almaz Design Bureau with assistance from Samsung Thales, LIG Nex1, and Doosan DST, localization and industrialization were done in South Korea enough to consider it an indigenous system.
The KM-SAM is a replacement of the MIM-23 Hawk systems and can intercept targets up to an altitude of 15 kilometers at a range of 40 kilometers.
