U.S. EXTENDS HELP TO SAUDI NAVY [IMRA: Private industry advantage?]

[IMRA: The beauty of the series of private industry contracts providing
American technical assistance to the Saudi armed forces is that it
considerably stretches the envelope of possible Saudi military activity that
could be carried out without jeopardizing the assistance. It might be hard
to imagine American GI's providing ongoing technical assistance and support
services to Saudi forces participating in an attack against Israel in a
joint operation with Egypt but the continued functioning of a private
American contractor under those circumstances might be a different story.]

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has decided to continue aid for the
development of Saudi Arabia's navy.

The Bush administration has approved the project in wake of the shooting of
a U.S. defense contractor in a Saudi naval base on May 1. The attack was
said to have been carried out by a Saudi naval officer in the King Abdul
Aziz naval base.

The Defense Department has awarded a $7.9 million contract to Booz Allen
Hamilton, based in McLean, Va., for support for the Royal Saudi Navy. The
Pentagon said the contract would focus on technical advisory and assistance
support services for the navy's command, control and communication upgrade
program.

Officials said the latest contract supports the government of Saudi Arabia
under the Foreign Military Sales Program. They said the contract includes
nine one-year options which, if exercised, would bring the total cumulative
value of this contract to more than $95.3 million.
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