Following the 1991 Gulf War, during which many U.S. Apaches operated from bases within Saudi territory, Saudi Arabia purchased twelve AH-64As for the Royal Saudi Land Force. It has been speculated that the Saudi purchase motivated Israel to also procure Apaches. In August 2006, Saudi Arabia began negotiations for Apache upgrades worth up to $400M, possibly remanufacturing their AH-64As to the AH-64D configuration. In September 2008, the U.S. Government approved a Saudi Arabian request to buy 12 AH-64Ds. In October 2010, Saudi Arabia requested a further 70 AH-64Ds as part of a possible massive arms deal.