Government approval of the contract came after Morocco received a $211 million loan in February from the French banking group BNP Paribas.
France supplies about 44 percent of Morocco's weapons needs -- the United States supplies most of the rest -- and relations between France and Morocco, a French colony until 1956, have long been cordial.
The purchase from MDBA France is part of Morocco's five-year plan, begun in 2017, to establish regional military supremacy by modernizing its military forces. It has devoted $20 billion to the objective. Since 2008 the country has acquired a naval frigate, two spy satellites and assorted ground armaments.
A 2019 survey named Morocco the seventh-largest military power in Africa.
The announcement of the deal Tuesday comes after an April approval of the sale of 10 Harpoon air-launched missiles, at $62 million, by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
The missiles, to be manufactured by Boeing Co., will be used on Morocco's F-16 fighter planes "to enhance its capabilities in effective defense of critical sea lanes," a DSCA statement said.
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