The supply chain has filtered away from Raytheon's Massachusetts facility, as well. Ten years ago, 60% of Patriot was produced in-house. Now the ratio has shifted to suppliers including in seven other countries.
As Raytheon courted Turkey as a buyer for Patriot, executives touted its partnership with Roketsan, which is producing missile flight-control elements of Patriot's GEM-T missile, and Aselan, which is producing part of Patriot's command and control system.
Another missile-related venture was launched last September, when Tawazun and South Africa's government-owned Denel Dynamics formed Tawazun Dynamics LLC, to develop and build a new range of precision-guided bombs. Details are expected to be announced at IDEX, but it has been disclosed that the main product will be the Al-Tariq family of strap-on guidance kits, based on Denel's Umbani design. The kit includes high-aspect-ratio wings and GPS-INS guidance, with optional imaging infrared and semi-active laser guidance.
Boeing expects its business model in the Middle East to develop in the direction of partnerships and collaboration, says Paul Oliver, vice president of international business development for the Middle East and Africa. “Partnerships are the wave,” he says. “The days of guerilla marketing are over—you don't just parachute in and sell products.”
In Saudi Arabia, where Boeing signed a massive deal centered on 84 new F-15SA fighters and 70 F-15S-to-SA rebuilds in late 2011, one of the company's biggest partnership vehicles is Alsalam Aircraft, in which it has a controlling stake. Saudi Arabia “is very much about investment, participation and the “Saudization” of the product,” Oliver says. Alsalam, which provides depot maintenance for the nation's F-15 fleet and operates the final assembly line for Eurofighter Typhoons, will be heavily involved in the rebuild program, which includes new radars and defensive avionics and other changes.
The AH-6i armed reconnaissance helicopter was also part of the 2011 package and is Boeing's first military aircraft variant to be launched by a Saudi order. However, it is being delivered as a Foreign Military Sales deal, and any Saudi industrial participation will be in support.
While establishing manufacturing “is not a quick process,” Oliver says, it is expected that Alsalam will evolve into building components for the F-15. Boeing also has the option of meeting its offset commitments via its commercial business—which in terms of parts ship-sets is a clear order of magnitude more valuable than military aircraft deliveries. “With offsets, we look at the capability that the customer wants to achieve. If their strategic vision is to get into high-end composite or titanium, that can come from military or from Boeing commercial.”
The UAE also developed an active warship industry around Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding. ADSB's biggest current project is the construction and fitting-out of the UAE navy's Baynunah-class fast corvettes. They are built to the Combattante-class design from France's CMN shipyard in Cherbourg: CMN constructed the first hull but the remaining five ships are being built by ADSB. The 915-ton, waterjet-powered boats have a top speed of more than 30 kt. and are heavily armed, with an Oto Melara Super Rapid 76-mm gun, MBDA MM40 Exocet Block 3 antiship missiles and an air-defense system carrying up to 32 Raytheon RIM-162 Enhanced Sea Sparrow missiles.
Last year, too, ADSB launched the first of 12 Ghannatha Phase 2 27-meter (23.7-ft.) missile boats in partnership with Sweden's Swedeship Marine. Some of the diesel/waterjet boats will be armed with MBDA Marte antiship missiles, and others will carry Patria 120-mm mortars, which are intended for land attack.