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Saudi defence companies are working together to develop the kingdom’s own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone. In late October, the General Authority for Military Industries (Gami) said it had signed a contract with Saudi Arabian Military Industries (Sami) to develop and manufacture the SkyGuard system.

An investment fund linked to Qatar’s Ministry of Defence has taken an equity stake in Aeralis, becoming the second largest shareholder in the UK military jet developer.

The US State Department announced on 16 September it had approved the renewal of a $500m maintenance support services agreement with the Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF)’s Aviation Command.

Senior figures in Riyadh including King Salman Bin Abdelaziz are said to be “very unhappy” about the US decision to withdraw its US-owned and manned Patriot and Thaad missile defence systems from Prince Sultan Air Base. Some see it as the precursor to a wider pull out.

The first Boeing F-15QA fighter jets were rolled out in the US on 25 August, with minister of state for defence affairs Khalid Bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah in attendance. They are due to be delivered to Qatar later this year, following the completion of pre-delivery pilot training which began earlier this year.

The United States State Department on 1 July approved a request from Kuwait to buy $445m worth of heavy tactical vehicles, along with support, spare parts and related equipment. The order covers 517 vehicles including 100 fuel tanker trucks and 188 guided missile transporter trucks to perform resupply missions.

Following the recent disagreement between the UAE and Italy, Rome has reportedly loosened some of the restrictions it had imposed on arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The growing popularity of Chinese armed drones may come into question in the coming years, according to a GSN analyst, not least because United States President Joe Biden’s administration has warned that purchases of weapons systems from China comes with a political price.

President Vladimir Putin has denied that Russia is soon to provide an advanced satellite imagery platform to Iran. The Washington Post on 10 June reported that Moscow had already sent a team to train ground crew in handling the Kanopus-V system, near the northern city of Karaj.

Despite indications in April that the United States planned to push ahead with the sale of 50 F-35 fighter bombers to the UAE, there has been little sign of movement, while doubts continue to be raised by a number of groups inside Washington and beyond.

A keel-laying ceremony was held at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin on 26 May for HMS Saud, the first frigate to be produced under the Tuwaiq programme for the Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF). v

The United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Monterey on 6 May intercepted an unflagged dhow in international waters in the northern Arabian Sea. In an operation that took over 24 hours, a boarding party removed an arsenal of weapons, including 2,500 Type 56 assault rifles, 250 PKM machine guns, 200 Dehlavieh and 9M111M anti-tank guided missiles, 100 Dragonov sniper rifles and 50 Sayyad long range anti-material rifles, together with associated ammunition.

Qatar is believed to be honing in on Italy’s Drass as a submarine supplier, according to usually well-informed analyst H I Sutton. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) first indicated it was interested in acquiring submarines in a memorandum of understanding signed in January 2020 with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.

Recently released imagery captured by the WorldView-2 satellite on 4 January has shown the scale of a major drone exercise held at Semnan, 180km east of Tehran, at the start of the year. The imagery shows more than 150 drones on the flight-line ready to participate; more than 15 types of short- and long-range drones can be identified.

The first three catamaran corvettes of the new Shahid Soleimani class, named after late IRGC Quds Force commander Qassim Soleimani, are under construction for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (Nedsa).