WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia is asking the United States to upgrade its navy's command, control, communications, computer and intelligence systems.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, in its notification to Congress of the deal, which would come under the Foreign Military Sales program, said the upgrades would be worth $1.1 billion.
"The proposed sale will improve the Royal Saudi Naval Forces' capability to maintain and upgrade its current C4I system, increase the ability of RSNF vessels and manpower to effectively protect Saudi Arabia's coastal strategic assets, and keep pace with the rapid advances in C4I technology to remain a viable U.S. coalition partner in the region," the agency said.
"The RSNF will use the upgraded C4I system to provide situational awareness of naval activity in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea."
The request for upgrades and maintenance support includes: 109 Link-16 multifunction information distribution system, low-volume terminals; global command-and-control systems; identification friend-or-foe systems; commercial satellite communications; combined enterprise regional information exchange systems, commercial high-frequency radios; and commercial ultra high-frequency/very high-frequency radios.
