Click to see full-size image. (SR2Vector)
A joint venture between a United States defense startup and a Saudi firm is building a factory near the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh, to produce one-way attack drones based on Iran’s Shahed-type system, Semafor reported on May 25.
The facility is being developed by SR2Vector, a partnership between Utah-based Vector Defense and Saudi startup SR2 Defense Systems, according to the report.
The factory will produce SKYWASP. The drone, developed by Vector, is capable of striking targets up to 1,500 kilometers away — roughly the distance from Saudi Arabia’s northeast coast to Tehran.
The design of SKYWASP is very much identical to that of Shahed-136. It has tailless cropped delta-wing shape with a central, blended fuselage and small stabilizing rudders at the wingtips. A photo shared by SR2Vector does not show any visible guidance systems, like optical seekers or data-link antennas, which suggest that the drone only uses a satellite-aided inertial navigation system.
“SKYWASP is a program that can level the playing field and boost Saudi Arabia’s deterrence capabilities,” Lucien Zeigler, SR2’s chief strategy officer and co-founder, told Semafor.
Zeigler did not disclose expected production figures, but said the factory would produce “operationally relevant volumes consistent with the kingdom’s strategic deterrence requirements.”
SR2Vector plans to manufacture the drones both for the Saudi domestic market and for export to allied countries, according to the report.
Shahed-type drones proved their worth during multiple conflicts in the Middle East, most recently during the American-Israeli war on Iran. Many countries have already copied these drones. In fact, the U.S. military is already operating its own copy of the system.
The new joint American-Saudi drone project is clearly meant to boost the kingdom’s offensive capabilities in the face of Iran.
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