General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada has won a contract reportedly worth at least $10 billion to supply light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.
The award is the second major contract for the London-based company in the past year; last spring it confirmed the sale of 24 LAVs to the Colombian army for $65 million.
In the final competition, GDLS-C beat out French and German bids to land the contract.
Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, announced the deal to workers at the GDLS-C facilities on Friday, saying later in a release that the 14-year contract is the largest export contract in Canadian history and would create and sustain more than 3,000 jobs each year and significant supplier base in southern Ontario.
The contract was facilitated by the Canadian Commercial Corporation and helps break into a key priority market targeted in the government’s Global Markets Action Plan.
Canada previously sold LAVs to Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s and in 2009.
The exact value of the contract and the number of vehicles being supplied were not disclosed. The vehicles will begin rolling off the London production line in 2014 and continue for six years.
In GDLS-C beat out several world defence leaders, including France and Germany in the final-three competition, to land the contract.