UAE to buy 80 warplanes

United Arab Emirates UAE chief of staff Sheikh Muhammad Bin Zayed al-Nahyan said the UAE seeks to buy another 80 warplanes after signing a contract in December to purchase French jets.

In a statement to the Kuwaiti News Agency, KUNA, Sheikh Muhammad said his country has not decided on from where they will be purchased and that negotiations are still on with competition open to all, noting that the the winner may be the US-made F-16 jet.

Earlier in this month, the UAE contracted with France to buy 30 Mirage 2000/1 S jet fighters at a cost of US $2.6 billion and signed an agreement to upgrade 33 mirage 2000 planes.