US Lockheed Martin intends to manufacture a combat ship in Saudi Arabia, which the kingdom purchased earlier.
Ray Beasley, vice president of international business in the American company announced that.
Beasley said at the(IDEX 2023) in Abu Dhabi, that his company will complete the ship’s manufacturing process when it passes the maintenance, repair, and modernization stage.
He added, “We are in the process of working on a facility to maintain some ships, which we will soon hand over to the Kingdom.
Ray continued saying, Stay tuned for an announcement in the next few weeks in this regard.”
In October of last year, the Royal Saudi Naval Forces inaugurated the main beam of the second ship of the “Tuwaiq Project”.
The “Tuwaiq Project” includes the construction of 4 combat ships.
Lockheed Martin officials attended the launch of The keel .
The keel is the longest structural element of the ship.
its placement is the first step in building the ship within the American tradition.
Localization of the military industry
Saudi Arabia is studying providing 30 investment opportunities for the private sector in the military industries,
the value of this investment will be 120 billion riyals (about 32.5 billion dollars).
This was stated by the Governor of the Public Authority for Military Industries, Ahmed Al-Ohali, last October.
These expected investments come within the framework of the national strategy for an industry that was recently launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The strategy includes more than 800 investment opportunities worth one trillion riyals.
It aims to increase the contribution of the industrial sector to the gross domestic product to 895 billion riyals.
It will also achieve a growth rate of 350% in industrial investment opportunities.
The strategy will multiply the number of factories in the Kingdom by more than 3 times to 36 thousand factories.
Regarding the company’s investments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Beselli explained that there are “localization requirements worth billions of dollars in the form of contracts that support this trend.
He pointed out that there are parts for the “THAAD” system that Saudi Arabia will manufacture.
Beselli said, “We want to localize operations in the Kingdom.
He continued, “We have invested with KSA in a series of capabilities to build an industrial sector.
This sector will serve the purposes of the automotive, aerospace, defense, and other fields.”
An official in the American “Raytheon” defense industries said last year that his company is studying the manufacture of part of the components of the “Patriot” missiles in Saudi Arabia.
At the time, the General Authority for Military Industries announced two projects to localize the manufacture of THAAD interceptor missile launchers.
It also announced the local manufacture of missile containers, in cooperation with Lockheed Martin.
