Kuwait will buy five Amoun air-defense batteries from Egypt to form a new air defense battalion. The first two batteries will cost $130 million total. Options exist to buy five more batteries, and Kuwait has said it expects to exercise the option. Amoun is the Egyptian name for the Italian Skyguard air defense system, which uses the ground-launched Sparrow radar-homing missile. (Sparrow is also used as an air-to-air missile and as the US Navy's self-defense anti-aircraft missile.) Each battery includes a control station, two twin-35mm towed guns, and two four-rail Sparrow launchers. --Stephen V Cole