Saudi Arabia Says 27.3% of Military Spending Was Localised in 2025, Above Its Annual Target
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) said on Sunday 25 October 2026 that 27.30% of the kingdom’s military spending was localised in 2025, up from 24.89% in 2024. The figure was announced at the Military Industries Forum in Riyadh and published on GAMI’s official X account. According to Argaam, the 2025 result beat the authority’s target of 24% for the year.
What GAMI announced
GAMI said the increase reflected joint work with public- and private-sector partners and restated the Vision 2030 goal of localising more than 50% of military spending by 2030. The Ministry of Defence quoted the announcement on X, saying the higher localisation rate for 2025 reflected integration between the defence establishment and its industrial partners (MoD post).
Argaam, citing GAMI, also reported a local-content figure of 40.91% for military spending. GAMI’s own forum page lists 40.74% under the same heading for 2024. GAMI has not yet published a full written statement setting out the 2025 indicators, so the method behind each figure cannot be checked in detail.
How the indicator has moved
GAMI announced the 2024 figure of 24.89% at the first edition of the forum in Riyadh in November 2025 (GAMI statement). An infographic published with Sunday’s announcement and described by Defence Arabia gives 19.35% for 2023. On those official figures, the rate rose by about 2.4 percentage points in 2025, a smaller increase than the roughly 5.5 points recorded between 2023 and 2024.
GAMI describes the measure as the share of total military spending on equipment and services that goes to the local industry (GAMI localisation page). It is a share of spending, not a measure of how much equipment is designed or built entirely in Saudi Arabia. Contracts with foreign manufacturers can count towards the figure when work is placed with companies in the kingdom.
Regional context
Much of Saudi Arabia’s front-line inventory still comes from the United States and Europe, as our analysis of Saudi Arabia’s dependence on foreign defence suppliers sets out, and we have examined the size of the kingdom’s Patriot air defence force. The localisation figures come during a period of repeated Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi territory, including the ten ballistic missiles the coalition says it intercepted on 25 October.
What to watch
At 27.30%, the kingdom is about halfway to its 2030 goal with five years remaining. GAMI says the private sector should lead growth in the sector. DefenceMENA will update this report if GAMI publishes its full 2025 indicators.
