Saudi Arabia Wants a US Built Fleet

There is a sense this deal is getting closer and closer.

Saudi Arabia plans to raise its arms purchases from the United States to $90bn from the $60bn announced last year, as the kingdom seeks to upgrade it navy, diplomats in the Gulf said this week. Last year, US officials said Riyadh planned to buy $ 60bn worth of military aircraft, including upgrades to existing fleets.

Some additional notes.

“There is a plan for Saudi to spend an extra $ 30bn to upgrade its navy fleet,” said a Western diplomat in the Gulf. “This extra amount also includes maintenance and training for the forces,” another Gulf-based diplomat said. A Saudi government adviser said he expected the deal to upgrade the navy fleet would be completed soon. “The chances this deal won’t be finalised are very remote. The money will basically be used to update the eastern fleet,” he said, adding the upgrade was part of a separate programme to the $60bn plan announced last year. US officials said last year the $60bn programme would be complete in 15 to 20 years. It was not clear over how many years the $30bn addition would last.

We have heard everything from Burke destroyers to variants of the Littoral Combat Ship. I'm not going to speculate, although I have heard that up to $30 billion of this money is for building ships. That amount of money spent on US shipbuilding from Saudi Arabia would be enormous for the shipbuilding industry.

More importantly, this the single biggest shipbuilding contract since when? I stopped after going back half a century. I wonder what role Ray Mabus has had in getting a deal this large done, if any?