Global Industrial & Defence Solutions (GIDS) came to the 2026 World Defense Show (WDS) in Riyadh with a clear message: Pakistan provides a mature munitions and drone portfolio, it is ready to transfer production to friendly countries, and Saudi Arabia is a critical market.
GIDS’ CEO, Asad Kamal, said as much at the exhibition, telling Aviation Week Saudi Arabia is the company’s “biggest market” and that the state-owned conglomerate is fully “willing to transfer technologies or transfer production to fulfill the aims of Saudi Vision 2030.”
For a company that has spent the past five years in transformation its brand outlook in the international market– i.e., IDEAS 2024 in Karachi, LAAD 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, IDEF 2025 in Istanbul and EDEX-2025, Egypt – WDS 2026, KSA was the culmination of a deliberate market-entry campaign.
GIDS stands today at a game-changing moment in its evolution by engaging and hosting highest level visits and demonstration of equipment for King Jordan, Indonesian President, Uzbekistan President and Azeri Defence Minister at GIDS HQs during the last six months.
The timing is favorable. Saudi Arabia allocated $78 billion to defence in its 2025 budget.
The General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) has raised defence spending localization from 4% in 2018 to 24.89% by the end of 2024, and is targeting 50% by 2030. GAMI has signed over 53 industrial cooperation agreements worth approximately $9.32 billion with local and international companies, and the number of licensed military-industrial facilities in the Kingdom has grown from five in 2019 to 296 by late 2024. WDS 2026 itself closed with more than $8.8 billion in deals across 220 agreements.
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