Jordan to buy US-made TOW missiles — company

Army Special Forces soldiers train on a TOW or Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided missile in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Jordan will reportedly buy an unspecified number of TOWs, technically called BGM-71, from Raytheon. US ARMY FACEBOOK PHOTO / SPC ALEXIS CONCEPCION

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan has signed a contract to buy TOW anti-tank missiles from US firm Raytheon, the company said in a statement issued Tuesday at the SOFEX arms fair for special forces.

Raytheon said the contract was signed between the Jordanian army and the US defense department, without specifying the contract’s amount or the number of missiles involved.

It said Raytheon would begin deliveries “this year”.

The Arizona-based arms giant has already delivered “more than 690,000 TOW missiles to US and allied warfighters”, the statement said.

The TOW — tube-launched, optically tracked, wireless-guided — missile has been used in Syria by mainstream rebel forces since 2014 and played a key role in battles against regime forces in the center and northwest of the country.

Washington gives Jordan aid of more than a billion dollars a year, about half of which is military.

Jordan is home to 630,000 registered Syrian refugees, but Amman says the true number of Syrians in the country is closer to 1.4 million.

SOFEX — the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference — was founded by Jordan’s King Abdullah II in 1996 and is held every two years.

More than 380 companies from 37 countries are taking part in the current SOFEX in Amman, the organizers say.

Washington’s ambassador to Amman, Alice Wells, told AFP that 69 US companies were taking part, and hailed the “solid partnership” between the United States and Jordan.

She also underlined the importance of new advances in the armaments industry in the fight against “terrorism”.