Key points
- Partnership strengthens Saudi digital defence capabilities
- Facility supports rapid prototyping and deployment
- Saudi engineers gain skills through knowledge transfer
RIYADH: SAMI Advanced Electronics Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Military Industries under the Public Investment Fund, has announced a strategic partnership with Lockheed Martin to establish a new software factory in Riyadh.
The collaboration is expected to speed up the local development of advanced software solutions and strengthen Saudi Arabia’s growing digital command-and-control capabilities, reports Arab News.
According to a press release issued by SAMI, the software factory will serve as an advanced platform for end-to-end development, rapid prototyping, integration, testing and deployment.
It will enable Saudi working teams to deliver mission-relevant software enhancements more efficiently across diverse operational environments, while embedding disciplined engineering practices and structured knowledge transfer.
The collaboration supports the Kingdom’s broader objectives to grow national technical capabilities and strengthen operational autonomy in critical digital domains, in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
Saudi engineers
Within the first two weeks of the collaboration, Saudi engineers and trainees from SAMI-AEC worked alongside Lockheed Martin teams to develop an operational capability that integrates commercial aircraft location data directly into the operational common picture within Lockheed Martin’s CommandIQ system.
The early delivery highlights the speed and effectiveness of local technical integration. It demonstrates how close collaboration between Saudi engineering teams and global technology leaders can rapidly translate into tangible capability outcomes.
CEO of SAMI-AEC Ziad Al-Musallam said: “We are proud to collaborate with Lockheed Martin in opening the software factory in Riyadh. This initiative reflects our commitment to developing local capabilities in software and digital solutions and to building a robust environment where Saudi engineers can gain practical, high-impact technical expertise.”
The software factory, said the release, reinforces SAMI-AEC’s long-term focus on building sustainable national capabilities by enabling structured skills development and advancing a modern, resilient digital ecosystem within the Kingdom.
