Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) has signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Korea’s Kia Corporation in order to build military vehicles.
The agreement aims to strengthen the competencies of SAMI Land Systems, which focuses on building national industrial capabilities, to build light tactical vehicles through collaboration, research, and development.
Through the agreement, SAMI aims to drive enhanced cooperation to produce military vehicles within the Kingdom and thereby strengthen the support provided by the SAMI Land Systems division to the Kingdom’s defense and security sector.
SAMI Land Systems is building and enhancing local industrial capabilities, as well as strengthening national talents to offer products and services of high quality in the field of land systems.
Furthermore, its products include wheeled and tracked combat systems; wheeled and tracked artillery systems; tactical logistics trucks; unmanned ground vehicles; turrets and remote weapon stations; maintenance, repair, and overhaul services; and integrated logistics support.
Walid Abukhaled CEO – SAMI
“As the Kingdom’s defense and security champion, SAMI is committed to strengthening its skills and competencies to build high-quality products within Saudi Arabia. This is part of our strategy to deliver on the goal of Saudi Vision 2030 to localize 50 percent of the Kingdom’s defense spending by 2030. Through the agreement with Kia Corporation, we will build on our strengths in developing land systems products.”
Kia Senior Vice President Ik-Tae Kim stated that, “Kia Corporation is a global mobility brand with extensive experience and high-level technological expertise not only in passenger vehicles but also in military vehicles.”
“Through our 50 years of experience in manufacturing military vehicles and alongside the collaboration tied during WDS 2024 with SAMI, Kia hopes to establish a new paradigm and system for Saudi military vehicles. Based on this partnership, Kia will continue to develop special vehicles based on our global leading mobility technologies to provide safe and reliable transportation at all circumstances,” the Kia Senior Vice President added.
