The State Department has approved a proposed sale of four Lockheed Martin-built (NYSE: LMT) combat ships with associated parts, equipment and services to Saudi Arabia under an $11.25 billion foreign military sales agreement.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Tuesday Saudi Arabia asked to buy the Multi-Mission Surface Combatant ships with corresponding electronics and munitions for modernization efforts.
DSCA noted the country plans to use the the ships to support maritime security in the Arabian Peninsula and address current and potential maritime threats.
The MMSC is a derivative of the Littoral Combat Ship‘s Freedom variant that has a reconfigurable hull design to support missions ranging from anti-air and antisubmarine operations to electronic warfare tasks.
Saudi Arabia also requested services for documentation, personnel training, logistics and program support, as well as communications equipment, training facilities, spare and repair parts, defense and threat warning systems and information systems.
Other major defense equipment in the sale includes:
- Five COMBATSS-21 combat management systems
- Five TRS-4D radars
- Five Identification Friend or Foe systems
- Five compact low-frequency active/passive variable depth sonars
- Eight MK-41 Vertical Launching Systems
- 532Â RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles
- Five AN/SWG-l(V) Harpoon Ship Command Launch Control Systems
- Eight Harpoon shipboard launchers
- 48Â RGM-84 Harpoon Block II missiles
- Five MK-15 Mod 31 SeaRAM close-in weapon systems
- 188Â RIM-116C Block II Rolling Airframe Missiles
- Five MK-75 76-millimeter Oto Melara gun systems
- 48Â 50-caliber machine guns
