Saudi Arabia will assemble a unspecified number of the 72 Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes it bought in a deal with the multinational Eurofighter consortium,the rest will be assembled in the kingdom.
The cabinet said in a statement after its weekly meeting the aircraft were bought at the same price offered to the British air forces and part of them will be assembled and made in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia said late on Thursday it would take up to 72 of the combat war jets from the multinational Eurofighter consortium which includes British defence contractor BAE Systems Plc (BA.L: Quote, Profile, Research), Airbus parent firm EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Alenia Aeronautica, part of Italy's Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research).
The kingdom did not disclose the value of the deal which analysts estimate at about $11.4 billion but said it provided for defence technology transfer.
Britain and Saudi Arabia agreed that the Gulf state would purchase the aircraft after having signed an initial deal in December.
The cabinet statement, carried by state media, said the Typhoon deal comes under the kingdom's policy to modernise its armed forces equipment, adding
it provides for training Saudi nationals. It did not give further details.
BAE is expected to invest in local training for thousands of Saudi nationals.
The jets will replace British-made Tornado and other aircraft in a deal which marks a defeat for France's Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA: Quote, Profile,
Research), which was hoping for its first export customer for the Rafale combat jet.
Saudi Arabia has a long history of buying arms from Britain dating back to the 1960s, and usually pays in oil.