KUWAIT: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) signed a KD 6.68 million (around USD 21.4 million) deal with Italy's Leonardo Aerospace, Defense and Security company to develop the air navigation system at Kuwait international airport. The agreement, inked Sunday, involves installing two advanced radar systems, according to KUNA. This is not the first airport-related venture for the Italian company, which has been present in Kuwait since 2010.
The first two projects for Leonardo in Kuwait involved upgrading the airport — the company installed and provided complex hardware and software systems for the management of data traffic between multiple airport systems in 2013. It also set up a primary radar for air traffic control in 2010. Leonardo has also done some work in the new T4 terminal, having supplied the baggage handling system, which has been in operation since 2018. Deputy DGCA Director for planning and projects Saad Al-Otaibi told KUNA that the new radar system would help improve and smooth out the process of air navigation at Kuwait International Airport.
The deal, signed by Director General of DGCA Emad Al-Juluwi and representatives from Leonardo, includes the designing, manufacturing, importing and operation of the new radars. Training, maintenance and technical support services were also included in the deal, said Otaibi.
The Eurofighter deal
Leonardo, an Italian multinational company, is one of the largest defense contractors in the world. It’s partially owned by the Italian government, which holds 30.2 percent of the company's shares and is its largest shareholder.
It has operations in 118 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The company’s Kuwaiti branch, founded in 2014, is one of the first-foreign owned Kuwaiti companies in the country, according to Leonardo’s website. The company was established through agreement with the National Offset Company, launched in 2007 to pave the way for foreign companies to enter joint ventures with Kuwait’s private sector, and the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority, a government entity promoting direct investment in the country.
The company’s activities in Kuwait include supplying the Ministry of Defense with 28 Eurofighter Typhoon aircrafts, an $8.7 billion deal which raised eyebrows when compared with similar purchases of the combat planes across the Middle East. It led Kuwait’s government to launch an investigation into the jets’ inflated price in January 2022, after which several senior officials were referred for prosecution in a major corruption case.
The Kuwaiti Anti-Corruption Authority’s investigations into the deal revealed that the officers "caused grave damage to public money by issuing inflated bills to the manufacturer that exceeded the total value agreed upon in the main contract,” KUNA reported at the time. However, the special tribunal for trying ministers acquitted a former defense minister and four senior ministry officials of the charges earlier this year. The final few Eurofighter jets are expected to be delivered by Leonardo in 2024, according to local media.