Wahaj

Wahaj is an arms manufacturing company in Saudi Arabia. Wahaj has premises in Riyadh's Second Industrial City. Wahaj is also known as Saudi Advanced Technologies Company.[1]

History

Wahaj was established in 2013 as a joint venture between Saudi International Petrochemical Company (SIPCHEM) and a member of the South Korean Hanwha Group.[2] The shares are split in a 3:1 ratio.

In 2017 Wahaj built 18 jigs for the BAE Systems Hawk jet. The jigs were the first collaboration of Wahaj and the Saudi subsidiary of BAE Systems.[3]

On 1 March 2018 Wahaj partnered with Lockheed Martin to build Paveway II Plus laser-guided bombs. The bombs would be used on Saudi Arabia’s F-15s, F-16s and Panavia Tornados. When the plant is operational 70% of the bombs were to be locally-built.[4]

In 2019 Wahaj and the Rafaut Group signed a contract to build aviation manufacturing facilities in Saudi Arabia.[5]

In 2021 Wahaj partnered with Honeywell Aviation to manufacture aerospace parts for civilian aircraft.[6]

In October 2023 Wahaj chose to partner with the IFS AB subsidiary so as to secure its IT needs.[1][7]

In February 2024 Milrem Robotics demonstrated their THeMIS UGV which was equipped with a Wahaj SCORPION remote-control dual gun system.[8]

In February 2024 Nexter signed an agreement with Wahaj that they would together develop a guided shell for use with the 156 CAESAR artillery delivery systems that were on order by the Saudi government, which had established more stringent precision standards than normal. The state-of-the-art ordnance systems used GPS and IMU; the newly-specified "Sabir" system would add a (drone-mounted) laser pointer feature and have a range of 60 km. In addition, the Saudis prize the ITAR-free status of their new shells.[9]

As of February 2024, Wahaj was able to brag about 100% Saudi-made defense systems.[10]