Lockheed's US$15bil Saudi deal at risk

Saudi deal: A Thaad interceptor being launched during a successful intercept test. The US15bil Thaad sale may be caught up in the growing congressional backlash against the Saudis. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: Lockheed Martin Corp’s potential US$15bil sale to Saudi Arabia of its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) air-defence system may be the unfinished deal most vulnerable to growing congressional demands to stop providing arms to the desert kingdom after the killing of critic Jamal Khashoggi.

It also underscores that the US$110bil package of arms sales that President Donald Trump announced on his visit to the Gulf nation last year – and has vowed to protect despite Khashoggi’s death – was always aspirational at best.