News / Saudi Arabia

US company to ‘localize’ arms production in Saudi amid ongoing Yemeni reprisal

Tuesday, 08 March 2022 1:50 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 08 March 2022 1:50 PM ]

File photo of the launch of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system (Photo by Reuters)

US arms company Lockheed Martin is to spend more than $1 billion towards “localizing” military manufacturing in Saudi Arabia as Yemen keeps up its reprisal against the kingdom’s 2015-present war on the impoverished country.

Ray Piselli, the company’s vice president of international business, told Asharq Business on Tuesday that the company would be working together with the Saudi General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), the kingdom’s regulator for the military industry, and Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), a state-owned military company, to support local Saudi industries.

A day earlier, GAMI had said it was working with Lockheed Martin to make some of the parts for its THAAD missile system, which is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in the final stages of flight.

Over the past years, Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen— aimed at re-installing the regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi— has prompted Yemen’s defense forces to take the kingdom under near-daily counterattacks.

The counterstrikes have, on many occasions, targeted areas as far as the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the strategic port city of Jeddah.