WASHINGTON – 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.
The components included control systems, circuit cards and guidance electronics.
The provision was included in the national emergency declaration Trump officials issued last month to bypass Congress for 22 separate arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates totaling $8.1 billion.
Although the US has sold smart bombs and other weapons to the Saudis under Trump and previous administrations, it protected the high-tech development process for national security reasons.
Trump’s decision to allow Raytheon to work with the Saudis to actually build the bombs has raised red flags among lawmakers and national-security experts who say it could soon lead to Saudi Arabia making its own smart bombs using US technology, the report said.
