When Saudi Arabia chose EADS to build a system to secure 9,000km of its borders with Iraq and Yemen, it bolstered the European aerospace and defence group’s claims to be one of the world’s leading security suppliers.
The Franco-German company beat competition from Thales, the French defence electronics manufacturer, BAE Systems of the UK, and US group Raytheon, to win the contract, awarded in July and thought to be worth at least $2bn.
