WDS 2022: SAMI claims key milestones and significant growth

Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) has highlighted ‘significant growth’ in military programmes over the past year, claiming ‘key milestones in terms of growth and expansion’ as it seeks to deliver goals for the defence industry under the wider Vision 2030 economic modernisation programme.

In a statement released on 6 March during the opening day of the World Defense Show 2022 in Riyadh, SAMI noted the completion of the Al-Sarawat programme to build five new Avante 2200 corvettes for the Royal Saudi Naval   Forces.

The final corvette, Unayzah, was launched in Spain by Navantia on 5 December 2021. SAMI and Navantia set up a JV in November 2018 for the Al-Sarawat programme.

SAMI in 2021 also secured SAR7 billion ($1.87 billion) in debt and grew its employee base by 633% to reach 2,500 staff. Business acquisitions included Advanced Electronics Company to establish SAMI Advanced Electronics, and the group also launched SAMI Composites.

Annual revenue soared by 2,407% to reach SAR2.6 billion. SAMI also reported an order backlog of more than SAR10 billion with a localisation commitment of 57.7% approved by the Saudi defence industry regulator GAMI.

SAMI was established in 2017 with a mandate to help localise 50% of Saudi defence spending by 2030.