Saudi to buy Typhoon

From eDefense

Saudi Arabia to Buy Typhoon Aircraft

Source: UK Ministry of Defense

Dec. 22, 2005

The governments of Saudi Arabia and the UK have today signed an "understanding document" intended to establish a greater partnership in modernizing the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces and developing close service-to-service contacts, especially through joint training and exercises.

As part of this, the BAE Systems will invest in local Saudi companies, develop an industrial technology transfer plan, and provide suitable training for thousands of Saudi nationals providing through-life support for key in-service equipments.

In addition, under the terms of the signed document, Typhoon aircraft will replace Tornado Air Defense Variant aircraft and others currently in service with the Royal Saudi Air Force. The details of these arrangements are confidential between the two governments. (For more on the Typhoon, see also "Typhoon Arises" and "Typhoon Pushed Internationally.")

The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom signed a formal understanding in 1985 for the supply of Tornado IDS, Tornado ADV, Hawk, and PC-9 aircraft, together with associated support services, equipment, weapons, ammunition, and electronic-warfare systems. The aircraft have all since been delivered.

The two governments signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in 1986 elaborating the arrangements put in place the previous year. This formalized the role of British Aerospace (BAe), as it was called at the time, as the prime contractor for the whole program and established a UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) project office to coordinate the activities of the UK MoD in support of the program and to monitor the contracted activities of BAe. The two governments signed the "New Buy Tornado Agreement" for the supply of additional IDS aircraft in 1993.

The 1986 MOU requires the UK government to ensure that all equipment, spares, training, and technical work supplied by the prime contractor are in accordance with Saudi requirements. The prime contractor's performance in meeting requirements is monitored by the MoD's Director General Saudi Armed Forces Project and his staff, based in London and in Saudi Arabia.