A senior arms sales official believes that it is "possible" for the United Arab Emirates to sign a contract to purchase the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter before the end of the Trump administration. Heidi Grant, Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, told reporters on Friday that the timeline for signing the UAE F35 contract during Trump's tenure is theoretically and temporally feasible, but he pointed out that this may require the UAE to take swift action. If you ask if it's possible, absolutely possible, "Grant said in response to a question about whether the F-35 could sign a contract before January 20th, when President elect Biden will take office. But we cannot control it. We are waiting for the benchmark from Congress, and then we will wait until we provide it to the UAE, depending on their schedule. But it is possible. The "Congress benchmark" subsidy mentioned is the end of the Congress notification period for all foreign arms sales offers as stipulated by law. DSCA notified Congress of the possible sale on November 10th, which means the notification period will end next week.

Cooper said, "This is a bilateral process between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, so there is no specific timetable. Obviously, when we deal with the loan agreement, partners certainly want to see it as soon as possible, but there is no specific date. The UAE is seeking a large-scale weapons package worth $23.37 billion, which includes up to 50 F-35A fighter jets worth $10.4 billion, 18 MQ-9B drones worth $2.97 billion, and air-to-air and air to ground ammunition worth $10 billion. It is unknown whether these aircraft are equipped with themAviation circuit breaker. These total dollars are only estimates and may change in the final negotiations, but they still represent a huge victory for American industry and a political struggle on Capitol Hill.