According to information published by the website “Tactical Report” on Saturday 7 January 2022, Saudi Arabia has expressed interest in the local production of the BIHO II air defence system developed and designed by the South Korean company Hanwha Defense.

The Tactical Report website says Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) in June 2019 with South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group to explore the formation of a joint venture (JVC) in Saudi Arabia called SAMI-Hanwha Munitions Systems.

According to other open source information, in February 2021 it was announced that the “King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology” has partnered with South Korea‘s Hanwha Defense to jointly build the new K30 BiHo II (Flying Tiger) air defense system on a crawler. A BiHo hybrid A/A system had already completed tests in Saudi Arabia.

As Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia‘s pioneering plan to diversify its economy and move away from hydrocarbons, envisages, the country is pledging that 50% of defence spending will be locally sourced – with experts predicting a subsequent boom in the local defence sector over the next decade.

In support of this objective, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recently announced an investment of more than $20 billion in the defence industry, a large part of which will be channelled into research and development (RD).

Meanwhile, a number of joint venture agreements have been signed with international companies to produce locally and transfer know-how to the new, ambitious local population, as proelasi. com reports.

In December 2018, the Army Recognition website reported that the South Korean company Hanwha unveiled a series of models of the new BIHO II self-propelled A/A system on 8X8 wheeled bodies of the Tigon armoured vehicle.

The BIHO II is equipped with an unmanned turret that can be armed with a 30 or 40 mm gun that can fire bursts of ammunition, a new type of tactical explosive ammunition against personnel that explodes in flight and causes great losses to the enemy by scattering fragments. The vehicle has a crew of three: driver, chief and gunner.