Saudi Arabia Appears to Expand Plant for More Powerful Ballistic Missiles

Saudi Arabia appears to be enlarging a ballistic missile factory to manufacture weapons with greater range or heavier payloads, according to researchers who examined satellite imagery spanning more than a year.

The assessment, reported by Reuters, centers on construction at al-Duwadimi, about 200 kilometers west of Riyadh.

Researchers identified a suspected missile-motor casting building at least twice the size of the facility believed to serve that purpose now.

Sam Lair and Michael Duitsman of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute analyzed Planet Labs images taken between April 2025 and September 2026.

The imagery “suggests that Saudi Arabia is expanding the infrastructure at the missile production complex, likely to produce larger missiles which could deliver larger payloads or reach longer ranges,” they wrote.

Saudi Arabia’s embassy and Information Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Larger Motor Production

The researchers believe the new building contains casting pits, where propellant mixtures are poured into motor casings and left to solidify.

A separate structure could hold propellant ingredients or completed missile components.

Construction started in April 2025. An image dated December 12 showed two suspected deep pits within the still-unroofed casting building.

By September 18, 2026, the roof remained incomplete, while substantial protective walls stood on both sides.

The researchers assessed that these were intended to direct blasts away from neighboring structures in an accident.

Roofing could be completed quickly, although fitting the casting equipment might require several months. Production could begin as early as the end of the year, according to FPRI.

Solid-fuel systems can remain in storage for extended periods and require less preparation before launch than liquid-fuel missiles.

Chinese Technology

Lair and Duitsman, alongside experts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and CNA, told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s missile inventory points to Chinese technology underpinning the complex.

The FPRI researchers also identified similarities between al-Duwadimi and missile factories in China.

Saudi Arabia secretly purchased about 40 Chinese DF-3 liquid-fuel ballistic missiles in 1987, according to a declassified CIA estimate from 1991.

More recently, the researchers examined videos and photographs that they assessed showed debris from a Chinese-designed DF-15 fired by Saudi Arabia into Yemen.

Lair said Riyadh might already be manufacturing the solid-fuel DF-15. The expansion could accommodate production of the longer-range DF-21 or a comparable weapon, he said.

China’s embassy and defense ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The CIA declined to comment.

Regional and Nuclear Implications

Greater missile range could give Riyadh another means of striking Iran while reducing the need to expose its U.S.-supplied F-15 fighters to Iranian air defenses, said IISS research fellow Sascha Bruchmann.

Bruchmann reviewed the findings for Reuters and agreed that the construction could support more powerful solid-fuel weapons.

Janes and CNA analyst Decker Eveleth also supported the broad assessment.

“This is being replicated across the Middle East,” Eveleth said, pointing to weapons expansion in the United Arab Emirates and Türkiye.

A stronger missile force could bolster Saudi deterrence against Iran, increase military self-reliance and strengthen Riyadh’s position against Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthis.

It could also intensify regional competition.

The construction may add to bipartisan congressional resistance to a U.S.-Saudi civilian nuclear agreement that would help Riyadh establish uranium enrichment for electricity generation.

Critics argue that the proposed safeguards would be insufficient to prevent a covert nuclear weapons program. Saudi Arabia denies pursuing such a program.