Indra wins Saudi Arabian ship contract from Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin has chosen Indra to equip 4 Multi-Mission Floor Fight Ships (MMSCs) destined for the Royal Saudi Arabian Navy with state-of-the-art digital defence programs.

The contract for the 4 118-metre-long vessels will see every ship fitted with Indra’s Rigel Digital Help Measures system (Rigel EW suite). The suite can detect and analyse radar indicators from different vessels within the space of operations to establish and classify their menace ranges. 

The vessel, which may have a spread of 5,000nm, have been primarily based on the Freedom-variant LCS ship and can produce a prime velocity in extra of 30kt. The ships have a reported displacement of round 4,200t, greater than the three,500t of the Freedom variant.

Indra will work with Saudi Arabian accomplice SAMI-AEC, a subsidiary of state-owned defence firm SAMI, with the 2 corporations having not too long ago labored collectively on equipping 5 2200 Saudi Avante-class corvettes.

Jaime Temes, land and naval programs director at Indra, claimed: “Our EW capacities, with state-of-the-art programs, permits us to be a part of such formidable and demanding defence applications as this one.”

Indra and Lockheed Martin have labored collectively on tasks because the Nineteen Nineties when Indra started creating parts of the Aegis system. Earlier this month, the 2 corporations signed an settlement to analyse additional enterprise alternatives in defence.

Based on Shephard Defence Perception, the US State Division accepted a possible International Army Sale again in October 2015 with a possible price ticket of greater than US$11 billion to the Saudi Arabia for the MMCS ships, together with their related gear, elements and logistical help.

Lockheed Martin first entered the programme in July 2018 when it was awarded a $450 million contract to start the design and planning for building of the MMSC vessels. In December 2019, it was awarded a contract value virtually $2 billion for the development of 4 MMSCs, with every unit price valued at $490 million.