In a first, Saudi drone to be produced in Turkey

BEIRUT — Under a new agreement, an unmanned aerial vehicle designed and produced in Saudi Arabia will be produced by Turkey, a first-of-its-kind deal to have Saudi intellectual property produced outside of the Kingdom.

Saudi firm Intra Defense Technologies’ ASEF-I UAV will be produced in Turkey by ESEN, under a new licensing agreement between the two firms. The Saudi company made the announcement on its official twitter page during the recent IDEF Turkish defense expo, stating that it has signed “a licensing agreement for the manufacturing and sale of ASEF-I drone, within Turkey to ESEN.”

Building a Saudi-designed system outside the Kingdom’s boundaries is a reversal of the way defense companies have traditionally worked, where Western and Turkish firms sell their products to KSA and start manufacturing them in the Kingdom in line with Riyadh’s localization efforts and Vision 2030.

Intra Defense Technologies vice president of engineering Asim Qurashi  confirmed to Breaking Defense in an email that this is the first Saudi made drone that is licensed to be produced outside Saudi Arabia. And notably, he indicated this might not be the last such deal

“Intra Partners in other regions have also expressed interest. Last April, ASEF-II which is a compact version of ASEF-I was on display at the LAAD exhibition in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, this led to the expansion the accessibility of Saudi Made drone to potential customers in Latin America,” Qurashi told Breaking Defense.

Mohammed Baharoon, general director of B’huth, a Dubai-based public policy research center. said the agreement “shows that the Saudi defense industry is expanding its capacity to develop systems critical to its military capability. It also says that knowledge transfer is a fundamental value for its defense relations.”

Baharoon considered the agreement a partnership that is mutually beneficial to both parties.

In response to Breaking Defense question about what each firm will contribute to in this agreement, Qurashi wrote, “Intra and ESEN have enjoyed a very strong and progressive partnership [over the last] last 5 years. There has been collaboration in multiple areas and at different degrees. ESEN has delivered Engineering support in multiple Intra UAV development programs. ESEN sensor products such as Wide Area Surveillance and Vision Based Navigation  native integrate to the ASEF-I Platform. The new agreement enables further reciprocal benefits for both parties.”

ASEF-I was showcased by the company at the first-ever Saudi World Defense Show 2022, and have a fixed wing architecture with vertical take-off and landing characteristic. ASEF-I can carry up to 26 kg payload, mainly an optical system for surveillance and reconnaissance, according to company specifications.

“ASEF-I versatility as a tactical platform makes it very unique, as it is runaway independent, portable and intuitive, it can be rapidly deployed to carry out a range of missions with ease of use. We have seen great interest in maritime/naval application and deployment from vessels for regular recon missions,” Qurashi said.

The executive said that  the deal between the two firms didn’t specify a number of drones to be sold, but is purely a licensing agreement to “produce and sell ASEF-I ” to Ankara. He also denied that Intra will look to open a production facility in Turkey as part of the agreement.

“Intra currently has its manufacturing facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There are no plans as of now to open production facilities outside KSA. The strategy is to leverage our strong global partner network to channel INTRA – Saudi Made Drone Technology,” he said.

Intra defense technologies, also signed a memorandum of understanding at IDEF in late July to localize integrating communications systems linking unmanned aircraft to satellites with Turkish firm C2Tech. Intra has been working for some time now on linking its drone to satellites, specifically around the Haboob and Samoom and Haboob UAVs. (The latter is a locally-built derivative of the Turkish Vestel Karayel-SU drone.)

Qurashi assured that the two agreements with ESEN and C2 tech are not related in any way.

On the wider scope localization efforts by Gulf countries, Baharoon highlighted that “indigenization of defence industry is important to all gulf countries diversifying to knowledge economy because of the spin off effect and technology infrastructure required which has bigger value on the long run than the equipment.”