Saudi Arabia, South Korea sign arms manufacture deal

Saudi Arabia’s Military Industries (SAMI) announced, Sunday, the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with three affiliate companies of Korea’s Hanwha Group to establish a joint venture company in Saudi Arabia aimed at localising military industries in the kingdom.

The three affiliate companies of Hanwha Group are Hanwha Corporation, Hanwha Defence Co. Ltd. and Hanwha Systems Co. Ltd.

The joint venture company will be established as a limited liability company in Riyadh under the name SAMI-Hanwha Munitions Systems LLC and will initially focus on the manufacturing and sale of munitions within Saudi Arabia.

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The company will later evaluate the possibility of expanding to produce missiles, artillery systems, combat vehicles, defence systems and naval systems, as well as control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) systems and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems.

The MoU was signed by CEO of Saudi Arabian Military Industries, Dr Andreas Schwer and CEO of Hanwha Defence, Mr Sungsoo Lee.

Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman and South Korean President, Moon Jae-in signed on June, 26 several MoUs in the fields of communications and information technology, e-government, culture, automobiles, hydrogen economy, health insurance, financial institutions supervision, and across military industries and technology.