Arms trade

Breaking through Saudi Arabia’s defense backlog

During his first international trip as president, Donald Trump announced eye-popping international sales of U.S. military equipment to Saudi Arabia. Nearly two years later, most of the new deals have not turned into official letters of request, much less contracts. While this disconnect has been fodder for more domestic criticism of the president, for long-time observers of Saudi arms purchases the yawning gap between announcements and timely outcomes comes as little surprise.

But as regional military leaders and industry executives gather for the upcoming International Defence Exhibition and Conference, or IDEX, there are signs that the kingdom’s defense-trade apparatus may be ready to clear long-standing backlogs and move more expeditiously in the future. Western firms stand ready to benefit, though not necessarily in the ways to which they are accustomed.

While Saudi Arabia has come under extraordinary international scrutiny in recent months, the kingdom has not relented in its pursuit of Vision 2030 reforms to diversify its economy, particularly by cultivating a domestic defense hardware and services industry.

As with other regional powers ― notably Turkey and India ― Saudi Arabia is no longer satisfied with the traditional vendor-customer relationships that U.S. and European defense firms enjoyed for decades.