Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia and China signed on Saturday an agreement to build drones locally in the Kingdom.

The Saudi Advanced Communications and Electronics Systems Company (ACES) signed the strategic agreement with a Chinese global knowledge transfer company to manufacture drone payload systems in the Kingdom. The pact was signed after ACES announced the establishment of a new company for unmanned aircraft in the Kingdom, namely Aerial Solutions.

The new agreement was signed with China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), one of the world’s largest defense companies. The state-owned Chinese defense conglomerate is specialized in dual-use electronics.

The agreement will facilitate the Chinese company to set up a research and development center and manufacturing team for various types of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) payload systems, including communications units, flight control units, camera systems, radar systems and wireless detection systems.

The Kingdom will take advantage of the Chinese company’s vast experience spanning over 20 years in research and development, with its dozens of research institutes.

It is noteworthy that ACES is an integrated company for information and communication technology systems in the Kingdom.

It is an international neutral digital infrastructure company with the vision to diversify its portfolio and continue evolving as a champion neutral host operator and managed service provider.

It has succeeded in building good reputation and providing giant projects over the past 30 years, aiming to provide CAT 1 to CAT 5 UAV systems, and render advanced solutions to serve various sectors such as defense, security, oil, gas, power transmission, traffic control and border guarding.