Middle East Defense Competitive Landscape Overview, 2022

Strategic Partnering to Transform Indigenous Defense Industries

The Middle East defense market is in the midst of a transformation driven both by regional and international geostrategic processes and by the changing national security needs of the countries in the region. Among these is the intensification of the Iranian military's emerging challenges, which requires a response in all military clusters.

The main trends shaping the market include a need for a multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary concept of operations (ConOps) for the use of military force (with an emphasis on deepening digitization and AI and C4ISR capabilities). Additionally, US-Saudi tensions accelerate localization trends and offset processes in domestic markets, which is impacting and enforcing business model adjustments on behalf of competitors in the market. All this is occurring alongside a controlled but stable increase in the regional defense budget.

This report provides an overview of the portfolio of ten leading local and international defense conglomerates acting within the region (both among the GCC countries and in Israel) alongside other leading OEMs from the United States and Europe.

This report is based on primary and secondary research and focuses on the current key transactions of leading regional defense vendors. It also points out the emerging opportunities in the market concerning regional competitive trends and the changing competitive landscape, particularly in light of the Russian defense industry's decreasing regional reputation in light of the Russo-Ukrainian war and the market impact of the historic Abraham Accords.