WDS: Boeing comes with hopes for future orders in several fields

The aircraft, with its distinctive rotodome above the fuselage, is based on the Boeing 707 and is now distinctly elderly, with the five examples having been delivered between 1986-87.

The aircraft have been progressively updated – and the basic military Boeing 707 design has shown its extreme longevity in the KC-135 Stratotanker role, with many aircraft having passed a half-century in service – but it has to retire at some point and Boeing is interested in promoting the E-3’s successor, the E-7, as a replacement.

“The RSAF is always looking at improving mission readiness and the AWACS is an ageing fleet,” Asaad Al Jamoai, president of Boeing Saudi Arabia, noted. 

Further modernisation of the E-3 is, of course, a possibility, but any aircraft approaching 35 years of age will need increasing amounts of maintenance to keep it operational.

Boeing also plans to push the benefits of the latest version of the F-15 Eagle, the F-15EX, an advanced variant of Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA.

Like the E-3, the F-15 has been around for a long time – the first prototype flew in 1972 – but it has been significantly upgraded over the years. The F-15EX has digital fly-by-wire flight controls, a new electronic warfare (EW) system and an all-glass digital cockpit, as well as an open mission systems architecture.

The third F-15EX made its first flight in November last year and operational testing is proceeding.

Within the past year, Indonesia has signed an MoU to purchase “up to 24” F-15EXs as it strengthens its armed forces in the face of increased Chinese assertiveness in the Pacific region. A sale has still to be finalised.

Boeing is also seeking to interest Poland in the aircraft, as that country also embarks on a major arms build-up in the light of the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine. 

As well as the F-15s, Boeing supplies significant numbers of several helicopters to the Saudi armed forces, including AH-64 Apaches, AH-6 ‘Little Birds’ and CH-47 Chinooks.

As well as supplying the hardware, an increasingly important area of Boeing’s activity in Saudi Arabia is maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), said Al Jamoai. “MRO is always on the rise because of the multiple acquisitions across both sides of the business, commercial and defence. If you have an MRO industry for aviation, there are some commonalities between the two.”

A joint venture was signed at the first WDS in 2022 between Boeing and Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) to undertake MRO work on helicopters. A major objective of that partnership is to allow more MRO work to be undertaken in-country, shortening supply lines and enabling work to be done more quickly than if the aircraft had to be sent overseas.

At the time of the signing, SAMI chief executive Walid Abukhaled said: “The maintenance of the rotary fleets operated in the Kingdom by the different forces represents a major opportunity for localisation and development of new sustainable skills.

“Much of this work is currently outsourced to the US or Europe, while aircraft numbers in the KIngdom are expected to double over the next 10 years.”

Al Jamoai said Boeing is also engaging with Saudi authorities to develop opportunities in the space sector. “We’ve been working with the Saudi Space Commission and we’ve identified several areas of collaboration with respect to human capital development, training and space missions,” he said.

“We’ve formed a task force to start distilling a list of projects that can go into those three areas.”