Saudi Arabia will invest more than $20 billion in its domestic military industry over the next decade as part of aggressive plans to boost local military spending, the head of the kingdom's military industry regulator said on Saturday.
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The Gulf state wants to develop and manufacture more weapons and military systems domestically, aiming to spend 50% of the military budget locally by 2030.
"The government has put a plan that we will be investing in excess of $10 billion in the military industry in Saudi Arabia over the next decade and equal amounts on research and development," Governor of the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al-Ohali told a defense conference in Abu Dhabi.
He also said the kingdom plans to increase military research and development (R&D) spending from 0.2% to around 4% of armaments expenditure by 2030.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, some 73% of the Saudi arms imports in between 2015 and 2019, during its ongoing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, came from the United States.
The UK accounted for another 13% of Saudi arms imports, the institute said.
While Saudi Arabia has been eager to shop for military hardware and munitions in the US, the administration of President Joe Biden recently suspended several arms sales to the Middle East, including a deal with Riyadh, for review.
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