Saudi Arabia expects to begin making drones next year, the military said, part of a plan to domesticate half of the kingdom’s military spending over the next decade.
The authorities granted Intra Defence Technologies a license to produce the Asef drone starting in the first quarter of 2021 at a cost of $200 million (Dh734.50mn), the General Authority for Military Industries said in a statement this week.
Intra is one of 25 local companies operating in the kingdom in the field of arms manufacturing, the statement read.
The Asef drone was unveiled at the Dubai Airshow in November last year, as Intra signed a deal with South Africa’s Hensoldt Optronics to co-produce systems for airborne surveillance and targeting.
Intra executive Anthony Gudgeon said at the airshow that the Asef, a Vertical Takeoff Aircraft, was “a world’s first in terms of its performance and in terms of a 100 per cent Saudi-developed and designed aircraft.”
Saudi Arabia's army and navy are Intra’s primary customers but there has been also interest from abroad to buy the Asef drone, Mr Gudgeon said.
The Saudi government has one of the world’s largest military budgets, accounting for more than eight per cent of GDP.
Riyadh has sought a variety of suppliers and partnerships in the last few years to boost manufacturing capacity and diversify away from western, especially US, suppliers on whom it depends for most of its military hardware.
During a visit by to China by King Salman in March 2017 Beijing agreed to build drones in Saudi Arabia as part of $60bn worth of business deals signed at the time. No date was announced by which the Chinese drones would be produced.
