DEFENCE Saudi Arabian World Defence Show (WDS) report

Saudi on show

ANDREW DRWIEGA reports from the inaugural Saudi Arabian World Defence Show (WDS) held on 6-9 March, intended to support the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

BAE Systems displaying its full-scale Tempest future combat air system. Andrew Drwiega

The first Saudi Arabian World Defence Show (WDS), founded by the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), was staged some 43m (70km) outside of Riyadh (6-9 March), at a purpose-built location in what had previously been only desert.

Governor of GAMI, Ahmad Al-Ohali, stated to the WDS how the defence industry was economically important by creating industrial opportunities. The Saudi government has stipulated that 50% of military expenditure should be spent within the kingdom by the end of the decade, known as Vision 2030. This intent was demonstrated at the show by the number of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) defence companies actively looking to develop and sign joint ventures, partnerships and distribution agreements.

New IISS MENA defence report

“One-third of all exported combat aircraft in the past two decades worldwide went to the Middle East, of which 20% went to Saudi Arabia, 17% to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 17% to Israel,” said Emile Hokayem, Senior Fellow for Middle East Security, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Hokayem was speaking at the IISS Riyadh Defence Forum on Saturday 5 March, one day before the opening of the first World Defence Show. The remarks were highlights taken from an IISS Report entitled Regional Defence Policy and Economics in a Global Context. Research was conducted among 11 MENA countries from 2008 to 2021.

According to Hokayem, the Gulf States (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar in particular) have looked to maintain air superiority over Iran. Israel has also sought to maintain its air power strength. This is due to the rise in airborne attacks, particularly in the UAE with up to 50 incidents, while Saudi and Israel have experienced more than 50 identified by the IISS report (between 2008-2020). Most of these have been launched by non-state actors.

Hokayem said that the reaction to this by the Gulf states is that they have looked to improve their defence in three areas: ground-based air defence (GBAD), aircraft and UAVs.

Air force modernisation has evolved around building an ability to project power to attack, preempt and punish. Before the last decade it was only really Israel that conducted air attacks but this has extended to Arab air forces in the last decade with offensive air operations in Libya, Yemen and Syria in the main.

“Eight out of ten countries that we have studied have acquired or developed armed UAVs in recent years and at least five have used them in known operations,” he added. “Armed UAVs are seen as an essential component of a modern arsenal and demonstration of technological capability.”

Addressing defence procurement, and in particular air power, Fenella McGerty, Senior Fellow for Defence Economics, IISS, pointed out that Lockheed Martin’s F-16 had been the most popular aircraft choice, accounting for over one-third of deliveries (this represented aircraft currently in service not on order). Operators include Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The report singled out the Qatari Air Force as one that had been modernising the fastest, with 96 aircraft from three different types.

This export of F-16s ties in with the current US defence export policy. Jed Royal, Deputy Director of the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, stated that the US was reconsidering its profitability export model. This was particularly relevant to certain aircraft: “While we do not currently require F-16s in the US, we are building them for export.” Linked to that was the US government’s “new emphasis on national defence strategy, focusing on allies and partners,” he added.

From left to right: The Saudi Hawk display team and the MARSS hit-to-kill drone interceptor, which debuted at the show. WDS/Andrew Drwiega

UAV defence in focus

While there was not the usual plethora of high-profile defence deals announced in the style usually associated with large air shows and defence shows, two of the main takeaways from visiting the event were to witness how far the Saudi Arabian and UAE defence sector has grown (representing a large part of the GCC) in creating its own manufacturing and supply base and how much further it intends to go.

With the recent and ongoing kinetic UAV and missile attacks – recently demonstrated by an explosion near Abu Dhabi airport and a missile attack near the Saudi Grand Prix, air defence is a technology that has gained much government attention.

One company that has been established in Saudi Arabia for the last 12 years is the technology company, MARSS. Following a UAV attack against a Saudi facility eight years ago, MARSS began its counter-UAS (C-UAS) development which culminated in the official launch of the MARSS interceptor at WDS.

Andrew Drwiega

The autonomous Interceptor relies on speed and weight to destroy incoming Category 1 and 2 UAVs through directed collisions with them at a distance of up to 5km. It is designed to be a low-cost alternative to using much more expensive missiles, around one-fifth of the price of a standard $150,000-$200,000 C-UAS. Johannes Pinl, MARSS founder, said that the Interceptor is manufactured to be strong enough to survive kinetic impacts with Class 1 UAVs and some Class 2s, depending on the speed of the collision and where the strike occurs.

Defence is based on the MARSS NiDAR C2 (command and control) system and can be used in a battery of up to six systems that are designed to take on swarm attacks, if required.

Outside the main halls, BAE Systems displayed its full-scale model of the Tempest future combat air system (FCAS) and Boeing’s products on display included one of the Saudi National Guard’s new AH-64E Guardian attack helicopters. Also on view was Scopa Defence (a subsidiary of the Ajlan Group) showing the Watchkeeper UAV, thanks to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UK-based UAS Tactical Systems (U-TacS). U-TacS was created in 2005 as a joint venture between Thales UK and Elbit Systems to deliver Watchkeeper to the British army.

At the end of the show, Walid Abukhaled, CEO of Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), announced that the organisation had negotiated financing agreements with three Saudi Arabian banks for $1.8bn (SAR 7bn) – a first for the sector – which will be invested in “future projects related to defence industries localisation, infrastructure development, acquisitions and working capital financing.”