·
·
World
An American startup and a Saudi company are collaborating to establish a drone manufacturing facility near Riyadh to produce attack drones.
A report from Semafor revealed that an American defense startup and a Saudi company are jointly working on constructing a manufacturing plant near Riyadh dedicated to producing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The drones produced at this facility are designed to resemble the Iranian "Shahed" system, which Tehran has deployed in attacks on Gulf countries in recent months.
Tehran has accused Washington of using drones copied from the "Shahed 136" model to target neighboring countries and incite discord.
The military facility is being developed by SR2Vector, a strategic partnership between the American company Vector Defense, based in Utah, and the Saudi startup SR2 Defense Systems.
The newly formed company will manufacture a one-way attack drone developed by Vector, named SKYWASP. This drone has the capability to strike targets up to 1,500 kilometers away, roughly the distance from Saudi Arabia’s northeastern coast to Tehran, Iran’s capital.
Lucian Zeigler, SR2’s chief strategy officer and co-founder of the project, told Semafor that the SKYWASP program "can level the playing field and significantly enhance Saudi Arabia’s deterrence capabilities."
Zeigler did not disclose specific production capacity figures for the factory but stated it would produce "operationally relevant quantities aligned with the Kingdom’s strategic deterrence needs." He also declined to provide a timeline for production commencement or details on the investment size for the project.
SR2Vector will manufacture these drones to meet Saudi Arabia’s domestic market demands and export them to allied countries. The project is supported by Masna Ventures, a defense technology investment fund that Zeigler is currently raising.
Masna Ventures aims to capitalize on the growing defense cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which was designated as a "Major Non-NATO Ally" last November during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House and his meeting with President Donald Trump.
