The defense ministers of Saudi Arabia and Britain have agreed to study their future cooperation in the development of air combat capabilities, but also the possibility of industrial cooperation, as reported by the state news agency of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and his British counterpart Ben Wallace met yesterday in Riyadh and signed “a declaration of intent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to participate in the Future Air Combat Capability (FCAS) program”.

The scope of the reported agreement was not immediately clear.

The acronym FCAS is widely used, describing programs to develop next-generation fighter jets known as Future Air Combat Systems, including the British-led Tempest program. This program was recently expanded to include Japan within a new cooperation framework known as the Global Air Combat Program (GACP).

The brief report by Saudi Arabia’s official news agency did not hint at plans for Riyadh to be directly involved in the British-led production program for the new fighter jet, with defense analysts pointing out that such alliances typically require months or years of negotiations.

According to the same press report, the areas of cooperation covered by the declaration include “identifying an overall shared vision for future cooperation in air combat operations”, while collaborations “meeting the needs of the required air combat capabilities” were discussed.

The declaration also includes the identification of industrial cooperation programs, as well as joint research and development programs.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense announced that the reported declaration of intent signed in Riyadh would trigger “a Collaborative Feasibility Study to explore how best to leverage the two countries’ decades-long relationship in the air battle of the future.”

The same ministry, in its statement, added that the two countries confirmed a common desire for closer industrial cooperation, but also for the development of important defense capabilities, without, however, referring to the FCAS fighter program.