Arab News, Saturday, Mar 05, 2022 | Sha'ban 02, 1443
KSA, UAE lead military R&D spending in GCC to build domestic capacity
Saudi Arabia:
In a region where military threats abound, GCC countries are moving toward
strengthening their military Research and Development capabilities, also known
as R&D, as part of their strategy to ramp up the domestic manufacturing capacity
of weapons and advanced military systems.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are leading the movement,
with the massive allocation of funds—a large sum of it will be spent locally.
The Kingdom is investing heavily in its local
defense industries as part of the broader diversification plans outlined under
Vision 2030. Last year, a senior Saudi military official reiterated that the
Kingdom plans to spend over $20 billion for its military industry, with more
than half of it will go into R&D over the next decade.
Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al-Ohali, governor of the
Kingdom’s General Authority for Military Industries, known as GAMI, said that
R&D spending will be increased from 0.2 percent to around 4 percent of armaments
expenditure by 2030.
In the UAE, too, the Ministry of Defense is
streamlining its domestic military capabilities. Last year, it signed an
agreement with Tawazun, delegating the management of defence and security R&D
planning and execution.
The defense and security acquisitions authority
for the UAE Armed Forces and Abu Dhabi Police, Tawazun, will foster economic
growth and the development of the UAE defense and security industry.
“A key dynamic that shapes the current defense
market in the GCC is that it is robust in several types of weapons and enabling
systems, including aircraft, drones, maritime and littoral systems, and anti-air
and anti-munition defense,” said Nick Heras, deputy director, Human Security
Unit, at Newsline Institute, in an interview with Arab News.
He added that some of the other emerging
technologies include systems for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,
artificial intelligence, munitions, computer systems, and information warfare
tools. Led by the UAE and KSA, the regional countries are consolidating their
military industry and R&D platforms by initiating various measures off late.
In 2019, for instance, Abu Dhabi placed several
state-run companies under a single organization to restructure its defense
industry. Around 25 businesses with combined annual revenue of $5 billion were
consolidated under a new conglomerate, called EDGE, which will position the
country as a global player.
Some of the companies placed under EDGE include
the Abu Dhabi Ship Building and the Advanced Military Maintenance Repair and
Overhaul Center. The latter is a joint venture with Lockheed Martin Corporation
and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary.
A similar venture was formed in the UAE in 2014
when Mubadala and Tawazun launched Emirates Defense Industries Company, known as
EDIC, which consolidated a dozen government-owned companies under one
organization. EDIC is now part of EDGE.
“EDGE is at the moment the most advanced
conglomerate in the region in the field of defense industry, and it plays the
role of a model for the Saudis with SAMI and the Qataris with Barzan Holdings,”
said Jean Loup Semaan, a senior research fellow at the Middle East Institute of
the National University of Singapore, in an interview with Arab News.
Some of the major UAE defense firms operate
nonetheless in independence of EDGE. These include Aquila Aerospace, which
modifies aircraft for spying, and Calidus, a producer of light-attack aircraft,
according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies
(IISS).
In Saudi, too, several entities have been created
to manage and oversee the budding military industry.
In 2017, the Kingdom established the GAMI, which
oversees military research and development and procurement. It is also a
regulator and licensor for the military industry in Saudi Arabia.
In the same year, the state-owned Saudi Public
Investment Fund, commonly known as PIF, launched the national Saudi Arabian
Military Industries, or SAMI, as part of the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision.
“The GCC market is still developing, and there is
a lot of room for growth. It is also a competitive market with a diverse array
of countries in it, including all three great powers—China, Russia, and the
United States, and European states such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and
Spain, and rising powers including Turkey and even India,” said Heras.
Through its partnership with the UAE and Bahrain,
Israel is also beginning to grab a share of the market, including potentially in
R&D in partnership with the UAE, he added.
Whether EDGE or SAMI, all these regional projects
have several goals, including building talent within the UAE and Saudi Arabia,
respectively.
EDGE aims to attract “elite industry experts and
talent from around the globe, to help on a wide spectrum of modern product
development,” the company reportedly said in a press statement during the
launch.
EDGE, which has five core specialties—platforms
and systems, missiles and weapons, cyber defense, electronic warfare and
intelligence, and mission support, employs over 12,000 people.
Whereas Saudi is expected to create around 100,000
jobs for the locals in the military sector as part of Vision 2030.
“There is definitely a strategy both in the UAE
and KSA to foster their local defense industry in coordination with the
education system,” said Samaan, giving the example of the Mohammed bin Zayed
University for Artificial Intelligence.
But he pointed out that R&D is a long process, “so
it’s too early to see a significant contribution from the local universities to
the development of military technologies.”
In his previous interview with Arab News, Al-Ohali
underlined the importance of forming a healthy ecosystem that included academic
institutions, research centers, universities, public and private institutions in
order to ensure the sustainability of the local military industry.
He added that the vision was to establish
partnerships with academic institutions in order to overcome the local skills
gap in strategic areas, such as engineering and skilled labor.
Yet, one challenge that GCC countries may face
while building their own R&D sector is that military research is often a matter
of national security. This makes other international players often hesitant to
share their military innovations.
“R&D sharing is one of the tricky subjects in the
global arms trade. Companies have to navigate complicated export control laws,
and especially for classified type systems, it can be a burdensome process,”
said Heras.
He explained that sharing research and development
is often a national security decision that is weighed against the potential
commercial opportunities.
“China and some countries such as Turkey have an
advantage in this regard because the military technology they sell is often tied
to the commercial benefit of the state or to companies close to the elites of
the governing regime, which balances the national security concerns they might
have,” concluded Heras.