Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — Kingdom’s Vision 2030 has a greatly developing mission in all sectors including the defense system. When the Kingdom’s vision was announced that the Kingdom defense production the goal is to reach 50% of satisfying local demand for defense production from 2%. Back to 2015 when the vision was announced, the Raytheon international company had various meetings with senior officials from the Kingdom’s government to identify the key areas of cooperation.

Recently, Raytheon company has established Raytheon Saudi Arabia company which is a full company that it is fully registered and incorporated under the Saudi law. This milestone allows Raytheon Saudi Arabia to accelerate its localization strategy in support of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. Earlier this year, Raytheon announced a Memo of Understanding with Saudi Arabia Military Industries.

“The discussions led to the conclusion of memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabian military industries to pursue collaboration in four key areas in the defense sector that is local manufacturing, air missile defense, cybersecurity in the defense sector and command and control,” Kurt Amend, Chief Executive of Raytheon Saudi Arabia said during a discussion with media representatives in Riyadh on Tuesday (Nov. 28).

“Our association with the Kingdom started when the Kingdom major program began with the Royal Saudi Air defense System decades ago and we have been continuously present in the Kingdom ever since. Our relationship and our commitment to the Kingdom have been expanded from that time. There are new military services with multiple ministries in concern and also private sector entities,” he added.

He stressed that their purpose is to enhance the defense production to go in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. “The cornerstone is to increase the ability of the Kingdom to meet domestic need. That means enabling Saudi hands in terms of mentoring, education and training and also enabling them to be on leadership positions in the company doing developments and conducting engineering work. With time, the expansion will be to look at regional demand and the third stage will be global.”

He added that the initial focus is to create jobs for 1,200 Saudis. Indirect jobs as a result of this could reach as high as 12,000, he stressed.

Amend expressed that the company has a very strong cooperation with academic institutions to enrich the educational atmosphere with the 95 year old knowledge and experience. “We have existing relationships with academic institutions such as systems engineering at King Saud University. The plan is contribute to research and development institutions and universities,” he said.

Raytheon Saudi Arabia will be based in Riyadh and is expected to include in-country program management, supply and sourcing capabilities, improved customer access and centralized accountability. These programs will positively impact Saudi and US economies, including job creation.