Dalma Tech² is a 100% Saudi-owned company that offers the full spectrum of technical, scientific, and professional services to military organisations and international commercial companies conducting business with the Saudi Arabia government and Gulf Cooperation Council countries. It specialises in training, logistics, and operational and mission support for military aviation and counterterrorism partners.
Saudi Arabia is the sixth-largest spender in defence, globally, investing $46 billion in the sector last year alone. It is a rapidly growing and evolving sector, with complex distributed systems and applications offering outstanding opportunities, but also significant technical, management, and organisational challenges.
That is where Dalma comes in. Dalma helps its clients and their customers address these challenges with its unique blend of experience, technical acumen, creativity, and customer service. Since the company was founded nearly 20 years ago, it has had one mission – to make a difference with people and technology.
The business’s core capabilities are in providing secure information and communication technology services, program and project management, system installation, testing and integration, operations maintenance, and warranty support. The company boasts competencies that range across communication and control technologies, integrated security systems, and training and 
performance support tools. At the same time, Dalma Tech² Company’s Technical Services provide a portfolio of services including secure information and communication technology services, program and project management, system installation, testing and integration, operations maintenance, and warranty support.
“There are very few companies that address technical requirements in the defence industry the way we can,” says Kevin Cushing, President and CEO of Dalma Tech². “Most specialise in the product itself, but we provide resources to agencies and their personnel within the Kingdom to address problems for the military. We are specialised in training people on the military’s aircraft and platforms to provide services for their repair and operations.”
Cushing is clear that this specialisation in the defence sector is a key part of Dalma’s offering.
“We cater to defence structures, whether it be as a security element, or a defence position or platform,” Cushing insists. “That’s what we do and we don’t vary out from that. We have no plans to move into, say, the commercial sector, for instance.”
A Local Perspective on International Tools
To understand the importance of Dalma Tech²’s work, it is essential to see its people in action.
Dalma Tech² works according to its values of competency, innovation, integrity, and respect for the customer. They are values that have made repeat customers a major and valued segment of its business. The company’s record of performance is evident in its work supporting the use of equipment such as the F15 aircraft manufactured by Boeing in the U.S. It is a perfect case study of how Dalma Tech² brings its knowledge base to bear.
“We do the training and the maintenance. Soldiers in uniform are trained in various elements of that aircraft for the Royal Saudi Airforce,” Cushing says. “The challenge is the training materials are in English, from levels three to five to seven. Our job is to help make our clients’ people capable of maintaining and operating this equipment themselves. We take a military listee and get them familiar enough with the English language that they are capable of receiving training on the aircraft, then moving them through a system where he graduates and is eventually able to train others.”
The language barrier is a consistently returning challenge. People need the right kind of mentality in place before practical training can begin.
“Changing that mindset is a big challenge for us, as it would be in any culture. There are different ways of training, and you have to adapt that training to the local culture,” Cushing explains. “It is about dealing with customer requirements so that people fulfil the necessary skill level for their missions.”
Human Resources
The biggest challenge, Cushing acknowledges, is that the company is based in Saudi Arabia, which means that finding the necessary resources for unique platforms developed abroad can be tough.
“Most of the platforms in this country are either British, European or American, so resources come from those countries, meaning we draw skills from the ex-patriot community,” Cushing says. “We bring in a lot of the retirees. People who have gone through military services and acquired the proper training look to Saudi Arabia to send their resumés. We have a lot of resumés on file, and
we try to recruit those kinds of resources. Women are allowed to enter the workforce now, which has opened up a lot of options.”
Dalma has also received valuable support from international partners such as aerospace firm PKL Services.
“Dalma Tech²’s experience with PKL Services has become synonymous with successful contract completion. Our teams integrate into the culture and community of our Saudi customers. PKL employees are valued for their cultural awareness and adaptability in unique environments while always achieving the contractual mission,” Cushing tells us. “PKL has an outstanding team. Their expertise and flexibility have greatly contributed to the Royal Saudi Air Force’s training and mission readiness.”
However, as well as drawing in talent from abroad, Dalma also has a commitment to finding and developing talent among Saudi Arabia’s own people.
“Saudi Arabia has a mandate for ‘local content’, meaning human resources that are homegrown,” Cushing points out. “We have access to military personnel who are discharged or retiring, who would offer back those capabilities to the government. 42% of the people who work for us are now Saudi nationals. These are people trained by the Saudi government and looking for an industry to work with.”
As well as growing that local talent, Dalma is also developing its own portfolio. While the company is retaining its commitment to the defence sectors, the company is looking to expand its offering to those sectors in a variety of ways.
“Dalma is going through a bit of a transition currently. We are now expanding our role from technical services to providing resources to companies that work for the government,” Cushing says. “We are beginning to work on the demilitarisation of aircraft. We can remove elements from within the aircraft and destroy them to U.S. or Saudi military standards. We can take elements of fighter or surveillance aircraft and minimise them. We are also moving into the field of maintainability of aircraft for avionic aircraft for various agencies. We are expanding into training missions and maintainability.”
