It’s is well know that Saudi Arabia is one of the first Arab countries that has focused on building the military manufacturing infrastructure. In 1949 King Abdulaziz started building military factories. Shortly in 1953 King Saud has opened the first ammunition factory in Alkharj city which was constructed by a French company. However, in 1986 the true military manufacture transformation has occurred after all the factories were brought together under the wing of foundation of military industries, an independent entity to be administrated by an independent management board led by the minister of defence.

This foundation has managed to manufacture a number of military products in cooperation with German and American companies, such as: i. Manufacturing light weaponry ii. Different types of ammunition iii. military communication devices iv. Military drones

Despite all this progress, the foundation can fulfil only 2% of the actual military needs of the Kingdom. Thus in the Vision 2030 Saudi Arabia is to engage in additional agreements to build further military factories. The Kingdom has set a goal to become a military supplier of the Gulf counties with the products produced by the Kingdom. The goal is to increase local military production to reach 50% of local market needs. In addition, it will expand advanced technological manufacturing in the country such as aircraft industries. According to the latest reports the Kingdom is the third largest spender on military equipment in the world, with military budget reaching 87 billion USD. This budget is larger than that of the Russian Federation which spent 66 billion USD. United Kingdom is in the fifth place at 55billion USD. The vision 2030 aims to guide the Kingdom towards rethinking many military contracts with foreigner companies. New agreements are to be linked towards establishing and growing the Kingdoms military industries. It’s is well know that Saudi Arabia is one of the first Arab countries that has focused on building the military manufacturing infrastructure.