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A projectile hit Riyadh's main airport on October 11, a day after a strike killed 13 people. Each attack uses up air-defense missiles that Saudi Arabia must replace, which adds urgency to its orders for Lockheed Martin interceptors.
Source: Investing.com ↗
On October 11 a projectile struck Terminal 4 at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and started a fire. A day earlier, a missile strike on the same terminal killed 13 people and wounded 309. The airport closed, more than 600 flights were cancelled, and the Houthis told airliners to avoid Saudi airspace. Saturday's deadly strike was already the third Houthi attack on the airport that week. The Houthis also claimed strikes on two oil facilities and Dammam airport within 24 hours. Saudi defenses intercepted a cruise missile near the airport. Lockheed Martin (LMT) makes the PAC-3 MSE interceptor used in Saudi Patriot batteries. The US approved a possible sale worth about $9 billion of these interceptors to Saudi Arabia in February 2026. These strikes mainly add urgency to demand that already exists.
Defense shares were already rising before the deadly Saturday strike. Lockheed Martin rose 1.7% on October 8 and 0.3% on October 9, and gained 0.8% over the five trading days to October 9.
The link weakens if the attacks stop quickly. In that case, Saudi Arabia uses few interceptors and has little reason to restock fast. Two things would show it by late October: King Khalid airport reopens and stays open with no new strikes, and the US decides not to join strikes on the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia may draw on interceptors it already holds. New defense orders often take months or years to reach a company's sales. The large Saudi order was approved in February, and Lockheed's output is limited by how fast it can build. A separate US-Iran war was already lifting demand for air defense. These attacks may add little to what Lockheed Martin would have sold anyway.
Houthi attacks on Saudi targets from 2019 to 2022 included strikes on Abha airport. The Houthis also claimed the September 2019 attack on Aramco's Abqaiq and Khurais sites, which the US blamed on Iran. Oil jumped about 15% in a day after Abqaiq, then fell back within weeks as Saudi output returned. The airport strikes caused only brief flight disruption.
Repeated Houthi strikes close Riyadh's main airport, cancel more than 600 flights, and raise the risk to Gulf shipping, energy sites and airlines using Saudi airspace.
Saudi air defenses must intercept missiles again and again, and each one fired has to be replaced.
Replacing interceptors, possibly alongside a US role in the strikes, adds urgency to Saudi demand for the PAC-3 MSE interceptors Lockheed Martin makes.
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