WDS 2022: SAMI, NIMR sign manufacturing agreement for JAIS 4×4

The UAE's NIMR and Saudi Arabia's SAMI have signed a licensing agreement, where SAMI will manufacture the NIMR JAIS 4×4 in Saudi Arabia. (Janes/Charles Forrester)

Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) and the United Arab Emriates' (UAE's) NIMR announced the signing of a manufacturing agreement for the NIMR JAIS 4×4 at the World Defense Show (WDS) in Riyadh on 10 March.

Under the agreement between SAMI and NIMR, licensed manufacture of the vehicle will be undertaken in Saudi Arabia as part of the country's efforts to increase domestic defence procurement by the end of the decade.

The two companies first announced a teaming agreement at the International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) in February 2021 to pursue opportunities for the JAIS 4×4, as well as an agreement to form a potential joint venture for manufacturing the vehicle in Saudi Arabia.

“As time progressed, we realised that the joint venture in the circumstances might not be the best way of doing it for us. So we made a joint decision to give ourselves more agility to progress from that conversation into one where we were talking about licensed production,” Abri du Plessis, chief executive officer of NIMR, told Janes .

“For us, it's a wonderful way to remain involved in the market, but not as directly as the plan was initially, and I think this gives both, us and SAMI, more agility in terms of our businesses going forward,” du Plessis added.