For over four decades, Naval Group has been a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s maritime defense, a relationship that began with the delivery of the Sawari 1 fleet in the 1980s. But today, that partnership is evolving rapidly to meet the ambitions of Vision 2030. From establishing a permanent subsidiary to replacing French technicians with Saudi nationals, the focus has shifted from simple supply to deep localization and industrial autonomy. We sat down with Patrice Pyra, Naval Group’s Country Director for Saudi Arabia, to discuss how the company is redefining its strategic footprint in the Kingdom and its roadmap for a self-reliant Saudi naval industry.
How do you assess the evolution of this partnership, and what makes the Kingdom a strategic priority today?
Naval Group is present in Saudi Arabia for more than 40 years since we delivered SW1 ships and frigates in the 1980’s followed by SW2 frigates in the 2000’s. We have a strong commitment in the Kingdom and have created a permanent establishment since 2007. A key milestone was reached in 2013 with the creation of Naval Group Arabia, our subsidiary in Saudi Arabia.
Our objective is to develop sustainable, long-term partnerships which contribute to self-reliance and sovereignty.
Naval Group is yet committed to localizing operations and collaborating with various actors within the Kingdom through the current support contract of the SW Fleet. underscoring our long-term commitment to supporting the Saudi Navy’s operational capabilities.
Additionally, we have developed cooperation with local industries and universities to support the growth of the local naval industry.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a strategic priority for Naval Group due to its commitment to advancing its naval capabilities. Our ongoing efforts to localize operations and collaborate with local entities further solidify this partnership, ensuring mutual benefits and sustained growth.
How has Saudi Vision 2030 influenced Naval Group’s strategy and level of engagement in the Kingdom?
We fully support Saudi Vision 2030 plan launched by HRH Mohammed Bin Salman and in term of local presence and saoudization, our subsidiary in KSA has more than 1/3 of the employees being Saudi nationals.
Our strategy is to develop local capabilities. We do this for example in the current SW support contract with the objective to replace half of the french technicians by Saudi ones. This initiative not only supports Saoudisation efforts but also ensures the upskilling of the local workforce, creating highly qualified jobs and high-added value activity on the longer run.
Besides the saoudisation, the partnerships that we built with the local industry in order to develop the self-reliance of the kingdom are fully in line with the Vision 2030 reflecting a deep commitment to localizing key capabilities to support the naval fleet within the Kingdom.
Is Naval Group ready to develop a long-term industrial footprint in Saudi Arabia, and in which areas do you see the strongest potential for local cooperation?
Naval Group has consistently increased its cooperation with Saudi Navy and defense ecosystem in order to enhance the country’s self-reliance and sovereignty at sea.
We are determined to provide high performance naval military capacity together with the logistic support and the creation of the industrial defense and technological basis standing by our customers and partners for the long term.
Through the current 4 years support contract for the SW Fleet, we already developed a strong cooperation with the industrial ecosystem in Saudi Arabia by transferring part of the Supply Chain in the Kingdom for manufacturing spare parts or doing repair. We have yet qualified about 40 industrial partners and suppliers aiming to qualify over 60.
We are working yet in many domains which composed the portfolio of all technological domains of the naval industry and prepared for broader partnerships in Saudi Arabia with the key industrial stakeholders of the shipbuilding and missions systems companies. These partnerships are set to propel Saudi Arabia to the naval shipbuilding and MRO services, not just locally but on a global scale.
What role do Saudi partners and local industry play in Naval Group’s approach to technology transfer and industrial cooperation?
Naval Group plays a key role in technology transfer and industrial cooperation, particularly through strategic partnerships and the transfer of expertise. This is in the DNA of our company with multiple successes and proven track records in establishing local production partnerships and transferring know-how, as demonstrated by projects worldwide, including the construction of surface combatants in Egypt and Malaysia, and submarines in India and Brazil. Additionally, Naval Group has an important partnership in Greece that produces frigate blocks with hull assembly in France.
In Saudi Arabia, Naval Group is involved in the maintenance and modernization of the Sawari naval fleet, including the “Sawari I” and “Sawari II” programs, providing spare parts and technical assistance and developing through the execution of the program the industrial eco-system needed for further cooperation programs. This will prepare and facilitate the transfer of knowledge by reinforcing the industrial ties with our partners for future technology transfer.
The FDI frigate is considered a next-generation surface combatant.
What are its key innovations and capabilities compared to traditional frigates?
The FDI of Naval Group is a next-generation combat frigate designed for high-intensity operations. It is a master of all domains: air defence, ASW, strike, cybersecurity and digital warfare. It is not a compromise ship, it is a concentration of high‑end capabilities in a balanced platform.
In anti-air warfare, Naval Group’s systems demonstrated combat preparedness through a series of instances in the Red Sea where French frigates successfully intercepted drones, anti-ship missiles and ballistic missiles.
FDI can be configured with up to 32 VLS, advanced missiles, and additional effectors. Export versions can include more firepower depending on customer requirements. The architecture is modular and scalable.
The FDI of Naval Group has already been delivered to two navies; it is not a frigate built from scratch.
It’s already proven in sea trials, and most of its equipments are combat proven.
How does the FDI frigate address modern naval threats, particularly in multi-domain and networked operations?
Designed to counter all modern threats – the FDI ensures full-spectrum protection in demanding operational environments without any performance compromise. The FDI is a ship designed for the threats of the 2030s and beyond.
- Leveraging on French frigates AAW combat proven track records (Red Sea), FDI displays improved high-end Area Air Defence capabilities against current threats and asymetric threats as successfully demonstrated in the Red Sea where French frigates successfully intercepted drones, anti-ship missiles and ballistic missiles.
- The FDI’s ASW systems- combat proven based on a theater ASW with Thales Captas sonar. Thanks to these capabilities, French Navy frigates have distinguished themselves on several occasions among other navies.
- AsyW: a unique solution for panoramic surveillance and the fight against asymmetric threats and UAVs, covering the entire spectrum of maritime security (piracy, trafficking, terrorism, etc.), including airborne and surface UAV.
Naval Group has just extended its in-service support agreement with the Egyptian Navy for another 5 years. How does this long-term support model strengthen fleet availability, local partnerships, and Naval Group’s permanent presence in partner countries?
The Egyptian Navy has recently renewed its contract with Naval Group for the In-Service-Support (ISS) of the vessels supplied to the Egyptian Navy.
The signing of the ISS contract constitutes a true recognition, for Naval Group, of the work and involvement in Middle East for years in the service of the Egyptian Navy and now paves the way for new support operations to maintain the availability of the Egyptian Navy vessels.
Moreover, this ISS contract aims not only to improve fleet availability, but also, along with the Egyptian authorities, to strengthen local industrial eco-system and consolidate our long term partnership.
Naval drones and unmanned systems are becoming increasingly important. How is Naval Group integrating drones into its future naval platforms and concepts of operation?
For more than 15 years, Naval Group has invested heavily in R&D to develop the use of air, surface and submarine drones by Navies.
We created a division dedicated to the UxV and autonomous systems business, which is a strategic pillar of Naval Group. We provide navies with sea-proven drones adapted to naval constraints, and ensure both physical integration to the ship of all unmanned system components (air, surface, sub) and functional integration to the ship’s combat management system. Thus, unmanned systems relay most efficiently intelligence and reconnaissance information: those data are gathered and automatically processed by Naval Group Combat Management System in real time, thus improving the situation awareness of the commanding officer.
Our integration solutions are also “drone-agnostic”, which means they can be deployed to several kinds of drones and we are positioned across the entire value chain:
- Drone projection ships (1st NATO ship, Versatile, Digitalized, Cybersecure, Scalable)
- Drones & Autonomous systems: designer, integrator and producer of organic drones, autonomous combat systems, drone capability.
- Integration into Naval Forces: (Overall architect, Integration into naval collaborative combat, Multi Drone Mission System, Controlled Decision-Making Autonomy®, Implementation solutions from Surface ships and submarines)
- In Service Support (Naval base infrastructures, Launching, rolling, storage, Rerolling and maintenance, Training, Simulators, Leasing and “as-a-service” offer)
Lastly, our UxV and Autonomous Systems Division has structured its product portfolio around 4 product lines (STEERIS® for the Systems product line, SEAQUEST® for the USV, SEAGENT® for the UUV and SEALKEN® for the physical integration of all types of UAVs on the ship and their deployment), structured through an incremental approach: simple, robust first products that rapidly add operational value and can be upgraded easily in terms of capacity as technologies and operational needs evolve.
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