Pakistan named in new US arms contract for AMRAAM missiles

An arms contract notified by the United States Department of War (DoW), formerly the Department of Defense, has listed Pakistan among buyers of AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), it emerged Tuesday.

The move inches Pakistan’s air force closer to receiving additional missile stocks under President Donald Trump’s administration.

According to the DoW, Raytheon was awarded a $41.6 million modification (P00026) to a previously signed contract (FA8675-23-C-0037). The change is described as “firm-fixed-price” for production of the AMRAAM’s C8 and D3 variants.

The modification raises the overall value of the contract to more than $2.51 billion.

“This contract involves foreign military sales to United Kingdom, Poland, Pakistan, Germany, Finland, Australia, Romania, Qatar, Oman, Korea, Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, Singapore, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Japan, Slovakia, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Norway, Spain, Kuwait, Finland, Sweden, Taiwan, Lithuania, Israel, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkey,” the notification stated.

It added that work on the order is expected to be completed by the end of May 2030.

It remains unclear how many, if any, new missiles will be delivered to Pakistan, but the development has stirred speculation about potential upgrades to the Pakistan Air Force’s fleet of F-16 fighter jets.

The AMRAAM is compatible only with the F-16 in Pakistani service. The missile is widely believed to have been used in February 2019 during Operation Swift Retort, when the Pakistan Air Force shot down an Indian Air Force MiG-21 flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar, Pakistan’s current air force chief, visited the U.S. State Department in July.

Defense publication Quwa noted that the AIM-120C8 is the export version of the AIM-120D, the main AMRAAM variant in U.S. service. The Pakistan Air Force currently operates the earlier C5 version, 500 of which were acquired alongside its latest Block 52 F-16s in 2010.

The contract news comes days after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir held talks with Trump in Washington. During that visit, Sharif pitched U.S. investment across agriculture, energy, technology, and mining.