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US Army awards more regional work

12 June 2025

 

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Middle East District has awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) task order contract to a US joint venture of Parsons and Versar.

Under the terms of the three-year contract, which is worth up to $75m, the group will provide general architect and engineering construction phase support services across the region. 

Typically, such contracts cover services such as onsite quality assurance and oversight of construction supervision, review of construction project submittals, laboratory testing of construction materials and responses to construction requests for information.

The contract is the third major deal awarded by the USACE Middle East District this year. In February, it awarded a $48m contract to Kuwait’s Arabi Company for the maintenance and support of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defence infrastructure and military platforms. 

Earlier the same month, it awarded a $29m contract to the US’ MVL Builders for the first phase rebuild of the Beirut naval base.

P-563 programme

The IDIQ contract is the latest in a series of similar active contracts covering the region. The largest, awarded to a single firm, was the $290m task order to Spain’s Typsa covering the programme management of the Saudi Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) P-563 programme.

Located to the northwest of Riyadh, the P-563 programme includes the development of facilities and infrastructure to support the overall MoD initiatives developed as part of the kingdom's Vision 2030 strategy.

It covers the construction of:

  • A new military city with MoD headquarters; consolidation, support and logistics facilities; a residential and commercial community; and other future commands
  • A National Defence University with a library, conference centre and academic buildings
  • A self-sustaining Joint Forces Command compound located approximately 50 kilometres from the military city
IDIQ contracts

Under the programme, IDIQ contracts totalling up to $700m have been awarded for various design services to US architectural firms HOK, SOM, Gensler, Jacobs, Scott Brownrigg and the US office of Canada’s WSP.

The latter, with support from the US’ Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, is currently handling the design of the MoD’s headquarters under a contract worth about $72m. The iconic building, which has an estimated value of $9.8bn, will serve as the Mod's primary office, providing working space for about 13,500 staff. 

It will be the central component of the new military city, which itself has an estimated development value of $7.1bn, supporting some 25,000 military personnel. The Saudi Arabia National Defence University (Sandu) will be built to the south of the military city and has an estimated construction cost of about $2.4bn.

The development cost of the Joint Forces Command compound is estimated at $1.2bn. 

On the construction side, the largest deal, worth up to $900m, covers the development of facilities to support the installation and operations of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) platform in Saudi Arabia, with five local contractors in the IDIQ pool.

Another large IDIQ contract, worth up to $449m, covers the expansion and upgrade of various military facilities across the kingdom. Four Turkish, US, Kuwaiti and Greek contractors are in the pool.

The US has about $3.5bn-worth of foreign military sales construction and maintenance contacts active in the region. Going forward, it is planning 60 projects with a total potential value of about $7.9bn. 

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Edward James

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