Airbus SE has signed an investment agreement worth more than 25 billion riyals ($6.7 billion) to build military and civilian helicopters in Saudi Arabia with a local defense company called Scopa Group, Bloomberg reports.
Airbus and Scopa Industries Corp. agreed to develop a helicopter manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia, with construction of the plant expected to begin early next year, Fawaz Alakeel, Scopa CEO, said in an interview from Paris. The plant will be able to produce up to 100 military and commercial helicopters by the end of the decade, he said, according to Bloomberg.
Saudi Arabia is continuing forward with major developments in its aerospace and defense sectors, with the Riyadh-based SAMI leading the charge on the localization of defense production.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said he wants half of the kingdom’s military expenditure to be spent locally by 2030. Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s biggest defense budgets, behind the US, China, Russia and India.
“We’ve been working with Airbus on this deal for the last year until we reached this agreement,” Alakeel said, according to Bloomberg.
