SIRAT › Markets › Saudi Arabia
Defence procurement in
Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is not a market a foreign supplier enters on price. Since 2017 the sector has been reorganised around a single regulator, GAMI, and a stated aim of localising half of all military spending by 2030 — a figure the authority reported at 24.89% for 2024. In practice this means the industrial commitment a supplier is willing to make in the Kingdom is assessed alongside the offer itself, and a company arriving without a localisation answer is arriving late. SIRAT analyst desk · reviewed 2026-09-05
At a glance
Who buys, and who decides
The Ministry of Defense is the end user. The General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), established in 2017, regulates the sector and issues the licences under which military equipment is manufactured and exported. Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) is a state-owned prime and joint-venture partner rather than a buying authority — for a foreign supplier it is more often the route into the market than the customer at the end of it.
How a requirement reaches the market
Government purchasing runs under the Government Tenders and Procurement Law, issued by Royal Decree M/128 in 2019 and in force since 1 December 2019, with its Executive Regulations amended in 2024. Opportunities are published on Etimad, the centralised platform operated by the National Center for Government Resource Systems under the Ministry of Finance, which government entities use to run procurement end to end.
What is expected back: industrial participation
GAMI launched the Industrial Participation Program in 2019 as the successor to the Kingdom's Economic Offset Program. It requires a foreign contractor to direct a share of contract value into activity inside Saudi Arabia — manufacturing, technology transfer, training of Saudi personnel, research and development, and investment in local defence enterprises. The policy also provides bonus credits worth 10% of the industrial participation commitment where GAMI determines that at least 30% localisation was achieved in delivering it.
Licensing
Manufacture and export of military equipment in the Kingdom is licensed by GAMI, for local and international companies alike. A supplier planning in-Kingdom production or a joint venture deals with GAMI on licensing before it deals with anyone on delivery.
Compiled from the published material of the General Authority for Military Industries, the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense, last reviewed 2026-09-05. A public reference note, not an assessment. Something wrong or out of date? Tell us.
Saudi Arabia,
through your company.
You have just read the public half. Inside, Saudi Arabia is one of 197 markets running the same set of answers.