Saudi Arabia is taking tentative steps toward developing a local aerospace industry with the rollout of its first locally assembled Hawk jet trainer. The country has a well-developed MRO network for civil and military aviation and a rapidly growing supply chain, but BAE Systems' In-Kingdom Final Assembly (IKFA) program for the Hawk is likely the first manned aircraft assembly project there. The project builds on a follow-up order for 22 Hawk Mk. 165 jet trainers placed by Riyadh in 2015. A first batch of Hawks had already been assembled and delivered directly from BAE's facility in Warton, England, but the second batch is being produced from so-called major unit kits-including fuselage, wing and horizontal stabilizer-that have been delivered to King Abdulaziz Air Base, Dhahran, the site of the Saudi assembly line. The 1,000th Hawk jet trainer will be among the 22 aircraft being built. "The IKFA program is unique in that it has taken an existing facility and used it as a hub to create a new industrial capability," says Steve Throup, head of the IKFA program for BAE Systems.
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