Spain’s state-owned shipbuilder Navantia signed a five-year follow-on support contract with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defence on June 3, covering maintenance, spare parts, and technical assistance for the five AVANTE 2200 corvettes the company delivered to the Royal Saudi Naval Forces between 2022 and 2024. The deal expands life-cycle services already running since the first ship’s commissioning in 2022, adds more Spanish technicians at King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah, and includes a localization plan covering training programs, knowledge transfer, and in-kingdom production of selected spare parts.
Three more corvettes are under construction, with the seventh hull’s keel laid in May at Navantia’s San Fernando shipyard in Cádiz. The December 2024 contract for that second batch carried a provision that received less attention than the hull count: Navantia agreed to transfer the intellectual property rights of the hull design to GAMI, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Military Industries, giving Riyadh the legal right to build future corvettes on that platform without the Spanish firm.
The Fleet at King Faisal Naval Base
- 5 corvettes commissioned into the Royal Saudi Naval Forces, 2022 to 2024
- November 2018: construction contract entered into force; all five hulls launched at a four-month cadence starting July 2020
- 104 meters in length, accommodating 102 crew and passengers, built for Gulf and Red Sea operations
Navantia designed the fleet for the operating environment, not a generic blue-water standard. The hulls handle the high ambient temperatures and demanding sea states typical of Gulf and Red Sea corridors, and each ship can conduct maritime surveillance, traffic monitoring, search and rescue, and protection of offshore infrastructure. Anti-surface, anti-aircraft, anti-submarine, and electronic warfare systems are integrated into the same 104-meter frame.
All five ships are designated the Al Jubail class, named for the lead vessel. HMS Al Jubail entered service in March 2022, described at its commissioning by the Royal Saudi Naval Forces commander as “the most technologically advanced surface combatant to join the RSNF.” The bilateral program is known as Project Alsarawat, which Saudi Navy leadership characterized as the largest defence industrial undertaking between Saudi Arabia and Spain.
Each ship carries a combat suite built around the HERMESYS communications platform, the DORNA fire-control director, the MINERVA integrated bridge, and HAZEM, the combat management system produced by SAMINavantia, a joint venture between Navantia and Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI). The fourth and fifth hulls were completed in Saudi Arabia, with the joint venture’s engineers handling installation, integration, and combat system trials in-country; that arrangement became the baseline for every hull that followed.
Navantia has provided life-cycle support since the first commissioning. The contract signed this week expands the scope of that presence at the Jeddah base.
What the New Contract Covers
The agreement adds three formal layers to the existing support structure at King Faisal Naval Base:
- More technicians at Jeddah: Navantia increases the number of Spanish technical staff responsible for platform and combat system maintenance. The original program included life-cycle support since commissioning; this contract deepens that presence.
- Spare parts supply: Ongoing provision of components for all five ships, intended to reduce maintenance delays and sustain the fleet at operational readiness throughout the contract period.
- A localization plan: Training programs, knowledge transfer from Navantia engineers to Saudi personnel, and production of selected spare parts within the kingdom.
Navantia described the arrangement as reflecting “Navantia’s compromise to continue with the development of the sustainment capabilities of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces.” The phrasing acknowledges a dual interest. Navantia has contracted revenue and a sustained technical presence in Jeddah; Saudi Arabia has a formal structure for drawing technical capability out of that presence over the next five years.
Saudi Arabia negotiates localization provisions into major defence contracts as part of its push to reach 50 percent domestic military content by 2030. The rate stood at 24.89 percent by end-2024, per GAMI’s annual figures, up from 4 percent in 2018.
Saudi Arabia’s military industries regulator was established by royal decree in 2017. A year later, the Kingdom’s defence localization rate was measured at just 4 percent. By the third quarter of 2024, the authority had approved 296 licensed facilities in the defence sector, up from five in 2019. The country’s military budget reached $75.8 billion in 2024, and converting a growing share of that into domestic production is the stated economic priority behind each localization clause a foreign supplier signs.
HAZEM and the Transfer of Know-How
The AVANTE 2200’s combat systems run on HAZEM, produced by the Navantia-SAMI joint venture. That product is the clearest indicator of how far the knowledge-transfer side of the corvette program has actually moved since the original contract was signed.
The Combat Management Partnership
SAMINavantia Naval Industries is a joint venture between SAMI and Navantia carrying an explicit mandate: become a regional combat system integration leader by developing naval capabilities through Saudi engineering talent. Its first deliverable was HAZEM, the first Combat Management System (CMS) designed and produced inside Saudi Arabia. HAZEM combines an integrated communications architecture, a fire-control director, and a platform management system in a single deployed package across all five Al Jubail-class hulls.
At the December 2022 delivery ceremony of HMS Hail, the third corvette, SAMI’s chief technology officer Mohammad Alkahtani described what the program represented.
This is a great day for the two countries, it culminates the strong collaboration between the Royal Saudi Naval Forces and its partner: Navantia, SAMI and SAMINavantia who are building capabilities in Saudi Arabia to support the RSNF needs.
Mohammad Alkahtani, SAMI chief technology officer, at the HMS Hail commissioning in San Fernando, December 2022.
HAZEM Lite and the NSID in Saudi Arabia
In November 2024, the joint venture announced HAZEM Lite, a combat management system developed entirely in Saudi Arabia by Saudi engineers working at SAMINavantia’s Naval Systems Integration and Development Center (NSID). The system targets smaller vessels with lower warfare requirements than a 104-meter corvette, derived from the full HAZEM architecture but adapted for compact hulls.
Dr. Mohammed Al-Qahtani, chairman of the joint venture, described HAZEM Lite as “the first product developed in the Kingdom, addressing the need to enhance the small vessel category” and positioned it as part of the contribution to the 50 percent localization target under Vision 2030. The Royal Saudi Naval Forces, the Border Guard, and regional allied navies are the identified customer base. The joint venture now markets the system independently.
The progression is concrete. HAZEM was transferred in from Spanish technology. HAZEM Lite was built in Saudi Arabia on that base, by Saudi engineers. The localization plan in this week’s support contract follows the same pattern, adding training and knowledge transfer requirements to the existing maintenance work at Jeddah.
From Spanish Hulls to Saudi Shipyards
The support contract covers ships that already exist. The three-corvette construction deal inked separately changed two things about how the program works: where the ships are built, and who owns the hull design.
Ships 7 and 8 Go to Saudi Arabia
Under the second batch contract signed in December 2024, Navantia will deliver HMS Al-Madinah, the sixth hull, from its Cádiz facilities. The seventh, HMS NEOM (Construction No. 576, keel laid May 2026), and the eighth, still unnamed, will both be completed in Saudi Arabia, with hull assembly, combat system installation, integration, and trials all conducted in-country. Block manufacturing for the eighth hull is also contracted to take place in the kingdom. Full delivery of all three ships is scheduled for 2029.
The contract includes training for approximately 100 Saudi engineers under the Industrial Participation Agreement, covering design and assembly roles beyond the operational training provided under the first batch.
GAMI Gets the Blueprint
Embedded in the December 2024 construction contract was a provision that sets a long-range precedent: Navantia agreed to transfer the intellectual property rights of the hull design to the kingdom. The transfer gives Saudi Arabia the rights to use the design for future corvettes and, per the contract’s language, for potential exports.
The legal transfer of a proven hull design is a departure from the typical pattern in Saudi defence procurement, where the kingdom has historically received physical equipment while the supplier retains the underlying intellectual property. With this design in Saudi hands, future hulls built on that platform can proceed without a foreign licensing arrangement. At eight hulls and counting, the Al Jubail class has an established operational record in Gulf conditions, which means the Saudi side is acquiring a tested asset.
| Batch 1 | Batch 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Contract signed | November 2018 | December 2024 |
| Vessels | 5 | 3 |
| In-kingdom completion | Combat system fit-out, Ships 4 and 5 | Full assembly and systems, Ships 7 and 8 |
| Hull design IP | Retained by Navantia | Transferred to kingdom |
| Saudi engineers trained | Operational and maintenance training | ~100 under Industrial Participation Agreement |
| Final delivery | 2024 | 2029 |
The support contract running from 2026 covers the existing five ships and keeps them operational while the second batch takes shape.
Spain’s Order Book Through 2029
For Navantia, the Saudi program is one of the anchor items in its current production schedule. The December 2024 construction contract for the three new ships represents approximately four million hours of work at the Bay of Cádiz facilities and is projected to sustain up to 2,000 jobs in direct, indirect, and induced employment across the region, based on figures the company has published. San Fernando’s shipyard, where the program was born in 2018, has run Saudi corvette builds continuously since and will carry them through the end of the decade.
The support contract adds to that picture. Deploying more Spanish technicians to Jeddah establishes a continuous bilateral presence through at least 2031, alongside the active construction in Cádiz. The agreement was welcomed by the San Fernando workforce and its labor representatives as providing long-term employment continuity, according to reporting at the time of signing. As a state-owned company accountable to the Spanish government, Navantia carries its employment figures into its commercial relationships in ways that private shipbuilders do not.
The five-year support contract runs to approximately 2031. By then, the eighth hull will have been completed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia will hold the AVANTE 2200 design rights, and around 100 Saudi engineers from the second batch alone will have passed through the Industrial Participation Agreement.
