The United States Department of State has granted approval for a potential sale of up to 250 air-to-air missiles to Sweden valued at 605 million dollars. The approval comes from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) and also includes spare parts and service agreements, according to a press release distributed on 7 July.

According to DSCA's press release, the Swedish government has sought approval to acquire up to 250 units of AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM. AMRAAM stands for Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles and is an advanced air-to-air missile developed by the American defence company Raytheon.

The missile has a documented range of approximately 75 kilometres according to available information on Wikipedia. Before launch, the aircraft provides target data to the missile, and during its flight towards the target, the built-in radar seeker is activated to guide the missile to its intended target. According to Raytheon, the missile has been utilised and developed for over 30 years and has been purchased by more than 40 countries. The company also manufactures the Patriot air defence system used by Sweden and referred to by the Swedish Armed Forces as Air Defence System 103. In this purchase as well, the DSCA handled a request from the Swedish government.

Now, the US Department of State has approved the sale. In the press release, DSCA states that the sale will "enhance Sweden's ability to meet and deter threats by ensuring that Sweden has a modern and capable air-to-air missile capability." In the same statement, they emphasise that the number of missiles and the financial value of the sale are the maximum possible and that the actual order is expected to fall below these levels.

For more information on the purchasing process, further details are available here.

Correction: In a previously published version of the article, the designation "Jaktrobot 99" was used for AIM-120C-8. However, the Swedish Armed Forces have not yet announced what Swedish designation the new air-to-air missile will have.