The US state department has approved a package of potential arms sales worth more than $3.8 billion to Bahrain including F-16 jets, upgrades, missiles and patrol boats, the Pentagon said last night.

This proposed sales includes 19 F-16V jets made by Lockheed Martin Corp besides two 35 m patrol boats with machine guns, 221 anti-tank missiles and $1.8 billion worth of upgrades to Bahrain's existing fleet of F-16 jets.

The Government of Bahrain has requested a possible sale of 19 M61 Vulcan 20mm Gun Systems; 22 F-16V F-110-GE-129 Engines (includes 3 spares); 22 APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array Radars and 38 LAU-129 Launchers, stated the Pentagon.

The deal also includes spares and repair parts, personnel training and training equipment, simulators, publications and technical documentation, cybersecurity, critical computer resources support, force protection and other related elements of logistics and program support. The total estimated program cost is $2.785 billion, it added.-TradeArabia News Service