NEW YORK – The Trump administration has permitted the construction of US high-tech bomb and missile parts in Saudi Arabia, giving Riyadh unprecedented access to a sensitive weapons technology, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The newspaper said in a dispatch that the White House allowed Raytheon, a US military defence contractor, to “team up” with the Saudis to build and assemble components of Paveway smart bombs in the kingdom. That provision, which has not been previously reported, is part of a broad package of information the administration released this week to Congress, according to NYT.
The move grants Raytheon and the Saudis sweeping permission to begin assembling the control systems, guidance electronics and circuit cards that are essential to the company’s Paveway smart bombs.
The US government tends to closely guard technology linked to sophisticated weapons, and limits how much of that technology is shared through co-production projects with other countries.
The new arrangement is part of a larger arms package, previously blocked by Congress, that includes 120,000 precision-guided bombs that Raytheon is prepared to ship to the coalition. These will add to the tens of thousands of bombs that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have already stockpiled, and some in Congress fear the surplus would let the countries continue fighting in Yemen long into the future.
The move also includes support for Saudi F-15 warplanes, mortars, anti-tank missiles and .50-caliber rifles.
The White House did not respond to NYT request for comment.
A Raytheon spokesman said there was nothing unusual about the production arrangement.
