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Saudi Arabia to Start Manufacturing Drones, Eyeing Foreign Exports

Saudi Arabia is boosting advanced military industrial production. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia is boosting advanced military industrial production. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia to Start Manufacturing Drones, Eyeing Foreign Exports

Saudi Arabia is boosting advanced military industrial production. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia is boosting advanced military industrial production. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia’s INTRA Defense Technologies CEO Abdulsalam Ghamdi said unmanned aircraft systems have become a useful technology for many fields, indicating that a developed country such as the Kingdom cannot ignore its interest in the sector meeting its local needs.

Ghamdi highlighted Saudi Arabia’s interest in investing in manufacturing and exporting drones as the move would help to diversify the Kingdom’s sources of income and develop its capabilities.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, he revealed the details of the Samoom medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV). INTRA had introduced the drone at the inaugural World Defense Show in Riyadh last month.

“INTRA Defense Technologies launched the Samoom UAV for the first time at the World Defense Show in Riyadh, and it is the first strategic unmanned aircraft that is being designed and developed and will be manufactured in Saudi Arabia,” said Ghamdi.

“Samoom’s operational endurance allows it to conduct up to 50-hour reconnaissance missions with the UAV flying at up to 45,000 ft,” he revealed, adding that it could be ready to serve the Saudi armed forces by 2024.

On expanding production at INTRA, Ghamdi recalled that the company had announced the first UAV factory in the Kingdom, whose production lines will be completed, and manufacturing operations begin in the middle of 2022.

“The production plant will contain the complete infrastructure for manufacturing various airframes using composite materials according to the highest international standards,” revealed Ghamdi.

Worldwide, drones have become an active element in many fields with both civilian and military uses.

“A developed and forward-looking country, such as Saudi Arabia, cannot ignore interest in the UAV industry and in developing its own capabilities to build advanced systems and meet its local needs,” said Ghamdi.

He highlighted Saudi Arabia’s interest in investing in the manufacture and export of drones.

“It is no secret that progress in productive industries enhances national sovereignty and bypasses export restrictions that some countries may impose on supporting materials and systems,” he continued.

He moved on to point out that the production of drones is part of Saudi Arabia’s plan to localize military industries, transfer and localize unmanned aircraft systems, and enhance local content in the military industries sector.

All these objectives top the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.

The Kingdom is at an important stage in the process of digital transformation across various sectors, and this provides the infrastructure needed for making great strides in the field of UAV production.

“There is no doubt that the progress that Saudi Arabia enjoys would benefit all businesses, including the military manufacturing of defense systems and unmanned aircraft, which require a high level of technical readiness,” explained Ghamdi.

Such a headway was achieved thanks to the government’s support under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense.

As for Saudi defense companies building international ties, Ghamdi said that platforms and exhibitions, such as the World Defense Show, provide local manufacturers with the opportunity to exchange experiences, bridge distances, build partnerships and strengthen relationships with global designers, sector leaders, and stakeholders in the military and security industries.

“These connections would have a positive impact on the Kingdom's ambitions for localizing more than 50% of its military spending by 2030, and could contribute to consolidating the bonds of cooperation that bring the Kingdom together with its partners in the defense industry from around the world,” he noted.

Moreover, major transformations in the Saudi investment environment and the many new regulations and legal and social reforms, have raised the Kingdom's attractiveness and increased its interaction with the growing opportunities in all fields, including the military and security manufacturing sector.

The Kingdom's position as one of the world's most influential countries in the defense industry and its influence on many regional and international files make it an ideal destination for military production.

“Saudi Arabia’s strategic geographical location connects three continents, and places the Kingdom at the center of global supply chains and the heart of logistical equations, as well as being one of the largest international markets in the defense industry and related technologies,” stressed Ghamdi.

The localization of the military industries sector in the Kingdom is at the heart of the goals of Vision 2030.

“During the past four years, the localization rate doubled from 2% in 2016 to 12% by the end of 2021,” revealed Ghamdi, adding that the increased rates bring the Kingdom closer to reaching its 50% goal by 2030.

The high demand from local and international investors to enter Saudi Arabia’s military industries sector proves that the Kingdom is an attractive market for investment, and that the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) is working to overcome the difficulties that may face investors in this sector.

In its latest reports, GAMI revealed that the number of licensed companies in the military industries in the Kingdom would increase by 41% by the end of the first half of 2022.

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Interviews

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.