The American "Lockheed Martin" aspires to make a joint military manufacture with Saudi Arabia
Lockheed Martin aspires to American defense industries to enter the joint production stage and develop products with Saudi Arabia, to overcome the phase of components and maintenance work that is currently undertaken inside the Kingdom, according to its CEO Joseph Rank.
He added in an interview with "Al -Sharq" that the target is a joint development of products and systems that meet the needs of the Kingdom and the region, and even global markets, noting that the company's strategy is in line with the "Kingdom's Vision 2030".
The company has gone through stages through its relationship with Saudi Arabia since 1965, which started to sell its products from aircraft, helicopters, radars and satellites, to follow a new stage represented in the manufacture of defense equipment components locally, in addition to establishing a maintenance, repair and rehabilitation center inside the Kingdom, according to Rank.
Ray Beselle, Vice President of International Business at the American company, said in an interview with "Al Sharq" in 2023, "We have the requirements of decades -shaped resettlement requirements ... We have a lot of investments, but we need more." He pointed out that there are pieces for the "Thaad" system that are manufactured in Saudi Arabia, and said, "We want to settle the operations in the Kingdom, instead of producing a piece of a system that is purchased, we are trying to build capabilities for manufacturing locally."
Rank noted that the maintenance center in the Kingdom enabled the company to carry out maintenance, repair of faults and rehabilitation of equipment inside the Kingdom, which relieved the company to charge the equipment to the United States to do so.
Investing in the human element
Moreover, Rank noted that the company is also investing in Saudi human capital, by providing practical experience and actual practice for them, in order to develop their capabilities to lead the Saudi market in the defense and air and satellite industries sector.
Rank believes that partnership with Saudi Arabia benefits the two sides, as increasing cooperation between them contributes to creating employment opportunities in the United States and Saudi Arabia alike.
Saudi Arabia aims to reach the localization of military industries to 50% by the end of the decade. According to the annual report of "Vision 2030" for the year 2024, at the end of last year, it reached 19%. The Kingdom allocated 272 billion riyals to spend on the sector in the budget of 2025, which constitutes approximately 21% of the total expenditures.
According to the National Industry Strategy launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in October 2022, the contribution of defense and military industries in the local product is supposed to reach 95 billion riyals in 2030.
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