Gulf states have been investing in defense budgets to restructure naval forces and homegrown shipyards.
Disputes in the Gulf and the wider Middle East have been a major driver of increased defense spending and improved military capabilities in recent years.
The rivalry between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the main causes of friction in the region, but there are also squabbles between Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – known as the GCC intra-GCC rift – which further fuels tensions .
The GCC countries include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. These countries occupy one of the most important strategic waterways in the world and can control access to the Persian Gulf and global oil supplies, so it is in the interests of the great powers.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been battling for dominance since the Arab Spring in 2011, when the governments of Riyadh and Doha took opposing positions and supported different groups in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and the ongoing Yemeni civil war . While these neighbors have never gone head-to-head, they are all trying to use their influence to advance their own interests over each other.
According to Tom Waldwyn, research analyst for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), naval modernization efforts in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries have shifted to reorganizing surface combatant fleets with new multi-role frigates and frigates .
“As the civil war in Yemen has led to more instability at sea, some countries have also started to expand the size and capabilities of their maritime law enforcement forces,” he told AMRbut added that Gulf states’ maritime modernization “doesn’t cover as broad a capability as procurement efforts in other areas.”
This is because any existential threat to the controlling regimes in these countries can only come from land invasions to overthrow them, so investment has made land and air procurement a priority. Despite this preference, Navy procurement has received substantial funding.
naval expansion
The Qatar Emir Navy (QEN) has expanded significantly over the past decade as part of a broader modernization of the Qatar Defense Forces, spending billions of dollars on new fighter jets. Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has been a major beneficiary on the naval side – the company signed a contract worth around $390-56 million (€350-500 million) in June 2016 to supply QEN with new ships to significantly enhance its naval capabilities.
“Qatar has awarded Fincantieri a $5.65 billion contract for frigates, Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) and amphibious assault ships (a separate contract with Leonardo will provide helicopters), which will provide the most important naval force to the region’s existing fleet upgrade and will bring many challenges including training, infrastructure and operations,” Waldwyn said.
In 2018, Qatar ordered 28 NHI NH90 helicopters, 12 of which are the naval variant of the NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH). Leonardo announced on January 3, 2022 that the first NFH variants will be “soon after qualification in the coming months” following the delivery of the first TTH variant to Qatar’s Emir Air Force on December 11. deliver. Delivery will be completed in 2025.
In October 2021, Fincantieri delivered the first of four new Al Zubarah-class (formerly Doha-class) anti-aircraft frigates to QEN. The second vessel, Damsah, was launched in February 2021 while the keel of the fourth vessel, Sumaysimah, was laid. Vessel 3, Al Khor, was launched in October 2021 and is expected to be delivered in 2022-2023.
At the same event, Fincantieri also unveiled the first of two new OPVs for QEN. The OPV is called Musherib and will be delivered in January 2022 AMR to press. The second OPV Sheraouh, launched in June 2021, will also be delivered in mid-2022. Qatar hopes the new ships will be operational before the start of the 2022 World Cup. Construction of the new Landing Platform Dock (LPD) amphibious vessel begins at the Palmero plant in Fincantieri and will be launched in late 2022 before handing over at Muggiano in 2024.
Until recently, the QEN included a handful of Barzan-class fast attack craft. QEN also took delivery of 17 patrol boats from the Ares shipyard in Turkey and the Al Doha training vessel in August 2021 from the Anadolu shipyard, also a Turkish shipyard. The second training vessel, Al Shamal, will be delivered in 2022. Integrating all these new platforms, sensors and weapons will be difficult for a country of 2.3 million people. Qatar has also expanded its General Directorate of Coastal and Border Security (GDCBS), which opened a new base in Al Daayen in July 2019, and received a new 48m-long patrol vessel from the Turkish shipyard Ares Shipyard fleet.
In terms of spending, Saudi Arabia provides the most money to the Royal Saudi Navy (RNSF), one of the world’s largest defense spenders. It has a portfolio of projects worth over $20 billion under its Saudi Navy Expansion Program II (SNEP II).
“Saudi Arabia is in the midst of approximately $10 billion worth of Navy and Coast Guard acquisitions, the most valuable of which is the $6 billion Multi-Mission Surface Combat Ship (MMSC) program in partnership with Lockheed Martin to procure four ships The frigate (LCS) design is based on the Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship,” Waldwyn said. “These could replace four Medina-class frigates from the 1980s.”
The MMSC contract was signed in October 2016 under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement with the United States. Lockheed Martin’s Marinette Marine Shipyard began construction of the first frigate, named “Saudi,” in October 2019, and construction of the second frigate in January 2021.
Meanwhile, Spanish shipbuilder Navantia launched the Unayzah in December 2021, the fifth and final Avante 2200 frigate to be offered to the RNSF under the Al-Sarawat programme. The Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) organization signed a $2 billion quintet contract in July 2018. Unayzah will be delivered in February 2024. The fourth vessel, Jazan, was launched in July 2021.
“Saudi Arabia’s deal with Navantia for the Avante 2200 frigate includes a joint venture to develop a battle management system and sell it in the region, but does not include shipbuilding work or compensation,” explained Waldwyn. The SAMINavantia joint venture assumed project management and development. The new CMS, named HAZEM, was developed through a technology transfer from Navantia as part of Riyadh’s “Saudi Vision 2030” effort, which plans to spend at least 50 percent of the defense budget domestically.
Earlier plans to build the fourth and fifth frigates in Saudi Arabia under the SAMINavantia Joint Venture (JV) appear to have fallen through as the country does not have a naval shipbuilding industry and the cost of building a new shipyard may be too high. However, the final integration of the battle management system and the delivery of Jazan and Unayzah will be done by the Saudi Arabian joint venture.
Waldwyn said that while the Saudi Coast Guard’s 2018 contract with French shipbuilder CMN Group for 39 HSI32 Intercept Patrol Vessels lacked a shipbuilding arm, it did include a “20” in its Dammam “assembled in Saudi Arabia by Zamil Offshore Services”. ship” yard. This may represent the first step in developing some initial form of local industrial capacity.
The third GCC country to experience a naval buildup is the United Arab Emirates, which is buying new surface combatants and an amphibious vessel, which Waldwin said, as a close ally of Saudi Arabia, are being used to “strengthen its military presence in Yemen and Operation of UAE Bases in Africa”. It is also the only country to develop its own naval industrial base through the Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding Company (ADSB). The company built six Baynunah-class frigates for the UAE Navy delivered in the early 2010s, but still has to procure major systems, subsystems and weapons from overseas.
In May 2021, ADSB announced that it had signed a US$952 million (AED3.5 billion) contract with the UAE to build four Falaj 3-class OPVs for the UAE Navy. The Falaj 3 design is based on the Dreadnought-class patrol vessel design by Singaporean shipbuilder ST Engineering. In November 2021, ST Engineering won a sub-contract from ADSB to provide design, platform equipment and technical assistance for the project.
Earlier in February 2021, another UAE shipyard, Al Fattan Group, completed delivery of the Al Saadiyat (L72) logistics vessel to the UAE Navy. Although based on a landing craft, it will provide the UAE Navy with the capability to conduct expeditionary operations and support the UAE’s overseas ambitions.
Meanwhile, in December 2021, French shipyard Naval Group unveiled the Bani Yas, the first of two new Gowind 2500 frigates for the UAE Navy. The second vessel will be launched in 2022, and both vessels will be commissioned within six months. The two men’s contracts were signed in 2019.
There has been little naval development elsewhere in the GCC in recent years. The Royal Oman Navy, which acquired three Khareef-class frigates from BAE Systems and four Al Ofouq-class patrol ships from ST Engineering in the early 2010s, completed a fleet recapitalization exercise and reduced defense spending in its 2021 budget. Waldwin said Bahrain and Kuwait have smaller navies with “limited recent modernization” because “other services have been prioritized.” Bahrain has the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Manama, which provides the island nation with a degree of maritime security it would not have otherwise. That said, the Bahraini Naval Forces commissioned the former Royal Navy River-class patrol vessel Al Zubara, along with two 35m-long fast patrol vessels and five former US Navy MkV patrol boats from US shipbuilder Swiftships.
Going forward, GCC countries are likely to continue to procure most of the naval platforms and systems from the US and Europe, and these companies will receive the lion’s share of the lucrative contracts. Waldwin said the GCC has some modest sales outside of its traditional network of U.S. and European suppliers, but “those are based on political relationships rather than winning in open competition.” Its suppliers are diversified, but will continue to import complex naval vessels in the near future. “
He added that efforts to develop local defense industries, “especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, through offset agreements and joint ventures, could mean an increase in shipbuilding or subsystem manufacturing capacity by the end of the century.”
by Tim Fish
