Saudi Arabia plans to buy eight modern frigates from Lockheed Martin

Saudi Arabia, which is looking to buy eight modern frigate-sized warships.Saudi Arabia is one of the "bright opportunities," along with the Asia/Pacific region, as foreign navies look to upgrade capabilities despite the downturn in defense spending, Orlando Carvalho, president, Lockheed Mission Systems & Sensors, told journalists on the sidelines of the Euronaval trade show. The information is "one of the first steps in the FMS" (Foreign Military Sales) procedure overseen by the pentagon, under which the U.S. Navy and the Saudi Navy are in talks on acquiring the ships. Lockheed is proposing the LCS equipped with an Aegis combat system and a more traditional "embedded" multimission package, rather than the mission modules requested by the U.S. Navy in its LCS program. The Saudi authorities have expressed interest in a ballistic missile defense capability on the LCS, but the discussions are still in the early stages, Carvalho said.