The U.S. Congress is preparing to review in the coming days the agreement to sell four MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones to Morocco, produced by General Atomics, as reported by Iberian media.
The U.S. State Department has already approved the contract, which was signed during the Trump administration, according to the same source. This announcement came on the same day that former President Donald Trump recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Under President Joe Biden's presidency, the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) order faced obstacles from the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, as reported in July 2021 by a Spanish newspaper. Following the midterm elections on November 8, 2022, the lower chamber saw a Republican majority.
The SeaGuardian MQ-9B drones have a range of 1,200 nautical miles (about 2,200 kilometers), allowing them to patrol vast areas of the sea or over the desert. The contract signed on December 10, 2020, valued at a billion dollars, also includes precision-guided missiles Hellfire, Paveway, and JDAM.