Abu Dhabi: The United States is planning to jointly produce tank components, light armoured vehicles and other products in Saudi Arabia, according to a senior US military official.
"Our biggest co-production project in the Middle East is in Egypt, where we jointly produced 1025 M1A1 tanks. In Saudi Arabia we are still in the planning phase, though the project initially will not be as big as what we have in Egypt, but there is good potential for growth there," Brigadier General Clinton Anderson, head of the US Army's Security Assistance Command, told Gulf News yesterday.
Even though no co-production projects have been planned with the UAE, relations and cooperation between the two countries are excellent, the general said.
United States has 32 co-production programmes with other countries and their total value exceeds $32 billion (Dh117.7 billion).
With growing security concerns, Anderson said, demand for air-defence systems and infrastructure protection have surged in the region.
"The clients in the Middle East have become more sophisticated and very specific in their needs, with infrastructure, such as oil production facilities and power production plants, in dire need of protection," said Clifford Beal, director of the US Strix Consultancy.
The US army encourages government-to-government arms sales through the Foreign Military Sales scheme, under which 3.8 per cent of the cost is added to the contracts for maintenance, rather than a manufacturer's direct deal with foreign governments.
"Recipients end up saving money as the 3.8 per cent proves to be much cheaper than the cost of establishing the services on their own," Lieutenant General Jeffery Kohler, director of the Defence Security Cooperation Agency, said in a presentation at the Idex 2007 exhibition yesterday.
