US-based Lockheed Martin will provide Virtual Training Technologies in support of Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA Modernization Program. The news comes on the heels of a recent announcement that the company had set up a branch in Riyadh on February 8th.
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According to a Press Release, Lockheed Martin, the Bethesda, Maryland-based aerospace company, has received a contract valued at $253 million to provide virtual training technologies in support of Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA modernization program. The contract agreement was signed to begin work on F-15SA pilot and maintenance training systems for the Royal Saudi Air Force.
“The technologies will provide a comprehensive ground-based training environment for Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA modernization program…Pilots will complete air-to-air combat, air-to-surface missions, air combat maneuvers and tactical intercepts with 360-degree full mission trainers. As a first for F-15 training, the systems will feature a single dome over the dual-seat cockpit to enable crew coordination training. Lockheed Martin will also deliver egress, avionics and desktop trainers for procedure training by pilots.”
The news comes on the heels of a recent Lockheed Martin announcement that it had set up a branch in Riyadh on February 8th, according to a report in Yahoo! Maktoob. That report also noted that Saudi Arabia’s KACST had signed a partnership agreement with Lockheed “aimed at improving the country’s defense capabilities.”
The uptick in Lockheed’s activities of late in the Kingdom follow news last August that the U.S.-based company was seeking to expand its missile-defense offerings in the region. At the time, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia and its “close regional partners” had taken an interest in “the purchase of an advanced Lockheed…missile defense system to counter perceived threats,” citing Lockheed officials.
After the Global Economic Crisis suppressed U.S. arms sales, increasing tensions with Iran drove Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman “to purchase American weapons at record levels,” according to the New York Times in August, 2012.
U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia “included the purchase of 84 advanced F-15 fighters, a variety of ammunition, missiles and logistics support, and upgrades of 70 of the F-15 fighters in the current fleet….Sales to Saudi Arabia [in 2011] also included dozens of Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, all contributing to a total Saudi weapons deal from the United States of $33.4 billion,” The New York Times reported, citing a Congressional study.
