Saudi Navy development plan, frigates and offset programmenote

The Saudi Ministry of Defence and Aviation is reportedly looking into new plans to develop the Saudi Navy, as it is still looking into offers for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and the FREMM-class frigate. Lockheed Martin makes the LCS-1 and General Dynamics makes the LCS-2, while DCNS and Finmeccanica/Fincantieri makes the FREMM-class frigate. The following 440-word report included in Tactical Weekly of January 23, 2009 focuses on the new plans and tells some of their guidelines. It also tells how the Saudis are thinking of benefiting from their offset programme to support these plans.