Business | General
EADS wins major border security deal with Saudi Arabia
European aerospace and defence contractor EADS NV has won a major contract with Saudi Arabia to supply a border security system covering 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) of the kingdom's land and sea frontiers, the company said Wednesday.
- AP
- Published: 11:53 July 3, 2009
Paris: European aerospace and defence contractor EADS NV has won a major contract with Saudi Arabia to supply a border security system covering 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) of the kingdom's land and sea frontiers, the company said Wednesday.
The company said the system will be put in place over the next five years. It didn't disclose the size of the contract, but the French weekly news magazine Le Point said it was worth about $2 billion ($2.8 billion). A spokeswoman couldn't immediately be reached.
EADS Defence & Security will carry out the contract with Saudi Arabian partner Al Rashid group for construction works.
The company, a division of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. NV, beat out French, British and US rivals for the contract, with Thales SA, BAe Systems plc and Raytheon Co. also having reportedly been in the running.
EADS already had been awarded a contract for security along Saudi Arabia's border with Iraq.
The planned security system "will ensure border coverage is visible and managed at the sector level, whilst simultaneously providing situational awareness at the regional and national level," EADS said in a statement.
Saudi Arabia's defence spending has been growing at one of the fastest rates in the world in recent years thanks to the oil price boom earlier this decade. The kingdom spent $38.3 billion on defence last year, and this is forecast to rise to $43.5 billion this year, according to Jane's Defence Budgets.
The United States, Britain and France have been Saudi Arabia's largest military suppliers, and in 2006 Saudi Arabia was France's largest defence customer with total sales of $890 million, according to Jane's Industry Quarterly.
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