TSAMTO, February 3. The command of the Saudi Arabian Navy has chosen the European MBDA group as a supplier of anti-aircraft guided missiles for new warships, preferring their missiles to the American company Raytheon.
According to the US Department of Defense, the Command of Shipbuilding and armament of the US Navy on January 31 concluded a contract with the American division of the European MBDA group in the amount of $ 118.7 million, providing for the supply of unified modular anti-aircraft guided missiles CAMM (Common Anti-Air Module Missile) to equip multi-purpose surface combat ships MMSC under the program "Foreign Military Sales". (Multi-Mission Surface Combatant), which are being built for the Saudi Arabian Navy at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine facility in Wisconsin.
The work will be carried out at MBDA Group branches in Stevenage (UK, 70%), Indian Head (Maryland, 18%), Huntsville (Alabama, 9%), Arlington (Virginia, 2%) and Mayport (Florida, 1%). Deliveries are expected to be completed by January 2027. The contract includes options, if realized, the total value of the sale will increase to $ 145,552 million.
As reported by TSAMTO, in October 2015, the US State Department approved the potential supply of 4 MMSC (Multi-Mission Surface Combatant) multi-purpose surface warships to Saudi Arabia under the Foreign Military Sales program, as well as equipment and services related to the contract with a total value of up to $ 11.25 billion.
In November 2017, the US Navy signed an initial contract worth $ 22.748 million with Lockheed Martin Corp, providing services for the supply of ships to the Saudi Arabian Navy. Subsequently, a series of contracts were signed for the purchase of equipment with long production periods.
In July 2018, a contract worth $ 450 million was signed with Lockheed Martin to develop a working design and plan the construction of ships, and in December of the same year, another agreement worth $ 1.956 billion was signed. The consortium that carries out the construction includes Lockheed Martin, Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Gibbs & Cox and more than 800 suppliers in 42 US states.
Steel cutting for the construction of the lead ship of the series began on October 28, 2019, for the second ship – on January 28, 2021. The keel of the lead ship, (820) Saud, was laid on May 26, 2021, and the second, (822) Fahd, on October 13, 2022. It is expected that the launch of the ship "Saud" will take place in the near future.
At the time of the official announcement of the sale of four MSSC ships to Saudi Arabia, it was envisaged that they would be equipped with RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow (ESSM) missiles from Raytheon in two eight-container vertical Mk launchers.41. Nevertheless, in October 2022, during the Euronaval-2022 exhibition in Paris, Lockheed Martin announced that the ships would be armed with CAMM missiles, which would be placed in one eight-container VPU.
The state-owned Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) announced in March 2022 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with MBDA providing for the establishment of a missile service center in the kingdom. The representative of SAMI also announced plans to organize the production of CAMM and CAMM-ER (Extended Range) missiles in Saudi Arabia.
