Morocco to Acquire $400 Million in French Military Equipment Ahead of Macron Visit

According to La Tribune, the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Morocco, scheduled for February 12 and 13 in the Kingdom, should be the ideal opportunity to unveil these contracts to the world. According to the media, among the French manufacturers involved in these contracts, Nexter will supply Morocco with truck-mounted Caesar artillery systems for an amount of 170 million euros, as well as their ammunition for a sum of 30 million euros. For its part, the missile manufacturer MBDA sold the kingdom in 2019 for 200 million euros of VL-Mica ground-to-air missiles.

Furthermore, the same source reports that the shipbuilder Naval Group would also be working on a project to maintain Moroccan military ships in the port of Casablanca. Here in particular, it is a question of three Sigma corvettes sold by the Dutch Schelde in 2011 and 2012 and the FREMM multi-mission frigate sold in 2008 by France. Taking into account the two spy satellites - Airbus and Thales - acquired in 2013, the summary point in terms of military equipment and arms purchases in ten years (between 2008 and 2018) by Morocco from France amounts to 1.8 billion euros.

However, despite France’s flirtatious eyes, the United States remains Morocco’s primary arms supplier. Indeed, the Kingdom will have purchased $10.38 billion worth of arms from the United States in 2019. La Tribune indicates that the modernization, by Lockheed Martin, of the 23 F-16Vs out of the 24 purchased in 2008 will cost Morocco nearly $1 billion. This American manufacturer will also ensure the operational maintenance of the Moroccan F-16Vs, for an amount of $250 million, not to mention the strengthening of its air force decided by Morocco, with the acquisition of 25 F-16Cs for an amount of $3.7 billion.

Moreover, Morocco’s purchase from Boeing of 36 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters is estimated at a cost of $4.25 billion and three CH-47D Chinook helicopters for a sum of $134 million. But also, the acquisition for the army, of TOW-2A wire-guided anti-tank missiles from Raytheon will cost Morocco $776 million, not to mention the contract concluded in 2018 with the United States, for the modernization of 162 Abrams tanks at an estimated cost of $1.25 billion.

To all this, we must add the considerable support of Saudi Arabia to Rabat, thanks to a multi-year military aid plan of $22 billion. A kitty that will allow Morocco to "support training, logistics and the local arms industry".