US to sell arms worth over $ 6 bn to Saudi Arabia http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=072265 By Xinhua 07/22/06 "Xinhua" -- -- Washington, July 21: The United States Defence Department has notified Congress of possible arms sales such as helicopters, radios and armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia worth over $ 6 billion. The Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement on Thursday that the sale of $ 5.8 billion worth of major defence equipment (MDE) and non-MDE was to continue modernisation of the Saudi Arabian National Guard. The sale would comprise 724 light armoured vehicles, 4,504 long-range and handheld radio systems, 2,132 night vision goggles, 630 thermal weapon sight, 162 recoilless rifles, and other military equipment. At present, there are approximately 250 US government personnel and 630 contractor representatives in Saudi Arabia supporting the nation’s National Guard modernisation programme, the statement said. “The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not affect the basic military balance in the region,” said the statement. In another statement, the agency said it had also notified the Congress of a possible sale to Saudi Arabia of 24 UH-60L Utility/Assault Black Hawk helicopters as well as associated equipment and services worth $ 350 million. “This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the US by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” it said. The Congress has 30 days to block the sales.
We've sold at least as much equipment to Egypt as Sauda Arabia in the past couple of years... Haven't heard a whole lot about it except for some gov. site with records of foreign arms sales. (wish I had bookmarked it, I might find it anyway)
The Saudis continue to spend money left and right on their military... Kingdom First to Use Typhoon Jets http://arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=82256&d=15&m=8&y=2006&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom JEDDAH, 15 August 2006 — Saudi Arabia will be among the first countries to use Typhoon military aircraft in the world, Prince Khaled ibn Sultan, assistant minister of defense and aviation for military affairs, announced yesterday. Addressing top military commanders and officers at King Faisal Air Base in Tabuk, he emphasized the government’s plan to strengthen the armed forces by providing them with intensive training and acquiring modern weaponry. Prince Khaled’s statement follows a report carried by The Times newspaper that the British government was set to sign a deal worth five billion pounds with BAE to build 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets which it has sold to Saudi Arabia.
I don't know, but it's clear that they have recently decided to undertake an aggressive arms buildup, although they already had by far the single largest defense budget in the entire region (almost double that of Israel's). BTW, here's a 'demonstration' video of what I assume is the Eurofighter Typhoon jet: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/115305/fighter_jet/ "Eurofighter can pull 6 Gs at supersonic speed and with the custom G suit , the pilot can sustain 9 G pull indefinitely ... whereas other pilots will pass out within 20 sec... Giving Eurofighter pilots great dogfight advantage. Eurofighter is the first in the world to achieve supercruise capability. It can fly the whole mission at 1.5 times the speed of sound without even using its afterburner. Whereas other fighter planes ( except F22 ) need to use afterburner to achieve supersonic speed and sustain this speed for less than 15mins before emptying its fuel tank." There are also some videos on their official website: http://www.eurofighter.com/Medialibrary/Video/
They've actually had an exceptionally large high-tech air force for forever. This goes back to maybe the mid 60's when they bought stuff from the British? In any case we sold them variations of the F-15 that we wouldn't sell to Israel. Their pilots are trained to a point where they were considered the equal of the U.S. and British pilots in the first Iraq 'adventure'. I don't know that I would consider this as much a build-up as a modernization. They have all the helicopters and support planes as well. I'm not sure that they've used them a whole lot other than in the first Desert Storm.
That's true also, but they have just concluded two major deals with the U.S. and Britain in the past month alone. You're right about Saudi pilots, they're highly trained and often times receive the same advanced training American pilots do right here in America. If I am not mistaken, they're buying roughly 30-odd jets of those Typhoons.
Saudi Airforce consist of foreign and local pilots. they recurit pakistani, American, Australian and whomever chooses to jin as pilots. thats a slap in the face of the saudi people in my opinion. Also the hippocracy here is amazing. the embargo on iran's airforce is sickening. iran has never attacked or shown aggression towards anyone. et the US has put a highly effective embargo on iran's aging fleet of jet fighters. if it was'nt for Reverse engineering , iran's american fleet of Airforce would'nt even get off the ground.
You don't think that it is reasonable for the United States to not sell parts to a country where the leaders in 1979 were all calling for the destruction of the United States? We are supposed to sell them parts for weapons even though the leadership violently hates us?
Ok, but why put embargos on iran's Airline fleet?. what crimes have the populace commited?. let them atleast travell safely.
I was watching Dick Clarke's promotion of "The Scorpion's Gate" on C-Span a few months back. It's a fictional story where the House of Saud has been overthrown by an Islamic revolution. So during the talk, he goes into some of the factual basis behind the book which leads him to predict a revolution in the near future. He cites the Iranian Revolution saying that shortly before it occurred, noone in the State Department could have predicted it as it totally took them by surprise and that polling data at the time suggested that most were content with the Shah. Pretty scary considering that despite the kingdom's alliance with America, their population has no shortage of hatred for us in comparison to other Arab states in combination with these arms dealings.
ottomon, i was sitting in my chair and was watching that pbs special on saudi arabia. we had plans to invade and take over their oil fields in the 70s during the oil crisis, if they had screwed us on oil any longer. unfortunately, we didnt invade.
This is the number one product of the US, arms. If we stop this, it's like laying off your father from his job.
So the US had plans in the 70's to invade a ME country with the worlds largest oil resverves to steel their oil. If only there were another country in the ME that we could invade so that we could steel their oil. Maybe say a country with the second largest oil reserves in the world.
