The relationship the United States shares
with Qatar is critical to the stability and security of the central command area of responsibility,
and we are grateful for our coalition partner’s continued focus on building interoperability
and combined readiness,” Lt. Gen. Greg Guillot, commander of 9th Air Force. “It is a privilege
and honor to stand with our Qatari counterparts this day and every day.”
Following pilot training, the first planes will arrive in Qatar later this year. Boeing
is also set to “establish and operate an aircrew and maintenance training center for
the QEAF at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.”
“The Qatar F-15QA program further enhanced next-generation technologies in the advanced
F-15 such as the fly-by-wire flight controls, an all-glass digital cockpit and contemporary
sensors, radar and electronic warfare capabilities,” Prat Kumar, vice president of the F-15 program,
said in the release. “Driven by digital engineering and advanced manufacturing, these
aircraft represent a transformational leap for the F-15. The F-15QA will enhance the
superiority of the QEAF with more speed, range and payload than any fighter in the world.”
Back in January, National Interest looked at Qatar’s relationship with its neighbors.
As Mustafa Menshawy wrote, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt all
cut ties with Qatar in 2017 while demanding that it shut down the Al Jazeera network.
But in January, the parties agreed to end the embargo and restore relations.
“The reconciliation has brought a sense of relief in all four countries. Ordinary
people paid a deep humanitarian price – many are linked by close tribal ties and there
are thousands of cases of cross-border intermarriage (to give you an idea of how close the Saudi
Arabia and Qatar are, consider that it takes just an hour to drive from Doha to Saudi territory),”
Menshawy wrote.
“This may all sound like a return to normality, but skeptics pointed to the fact that, while
the two feuding leaders talked of ‘brotherly unity’ and desires for ‘Gulf unity’,
neither mentioned an agreement on any of the issues that caused the crisis. On the one
hand, everyone’s a winner – but, on the other, we don’t know how or why. The situation
has been described as a ‘detente borne more of exhaustion than compromise.’”
Qatar is set to host the FIFA World Cup next year.
