That's a good deal because Sweden dont require conditions to the deal. Also Sweden will help Saudi with the equipment. Great choice I didn't know about this deal. Another thing thats great about this deal is they will train the Saudi on how to maintain and operate the aircraft.
So Saudi Arabia now can have eyes in northern Saudi Arabia. Sweden have a great program when you buy something from them checkout the Thailand Air Force purchase of the Gippen. I feel sorry for Saudis
after buying the best equipment with conditions on them. Its not fair to be a partner and take the short end of the stick. You can talk all this stuff about Iran you want but they doing it on there own. That's only respect I have for them. The effects of this massive Saudi purchases don't mean anything if they don't know how maintain it thereself that a fact. That's why they needs to buy equipment from other sources with no conditions on them. I will say this having this equipment will help them if they do operations with U.S. against Iran. The overall conclusion is having all this great equipment is to use only when its in the interest of the U.S. how sad that is. Nothing but puppets for the U.S. the true hurts.Not sure I understand what you are alluding to when you talk about the sale of Gripens to Thailand. Have you come across some info that they have had some problems in arm releases to Thailand?So Saudi Arabia now can have eyes in northern Saudi Arabia. Sweden have a great program when you buy something from them checkout the Thailand Air Force purchase of the Gippen. I feel sorry for Saudis
The sale/delivery was slow but I think it was because Thailand had money problems because of downturn of their economy. Oh no the deal with Thailand is doing great. The Thailand pilots are happy about the Gippens. They just got some in Thailand not to long ago. The Sweden trained the pilots and maintainance crew. That was a wounderful deal. Thailand did have money issues they made a decision to get a squadron about 6 jets. My opinion Thailand couldn't got a better deal from any other country.Not sure I understand what you are alluding to when you talk about the sale of Gripens to Thailand. Have you come across some info that they have had some problems in arm releases to Thailand?
SAAB has also sold Erieye to Pakistan, Thailand and now Saudi Arabia so it should be a well established system with full release. It should be a good complement to AWACS.
Well the problem is there is not much published works in English that provide an indepth analysis of how the Saudis performed. The best currently avaible is 'Arabs At War' by Pollack [in fact the only one i'm aware of], in which he provides analysis to show the Saudis did not perform as well as they should have, for a variety of reasons.
Of course it is and that's why Saudis and the Gulf states have been spending billions, it's certainly not directed at the Jamaican Defence Forces
. Unfortunatly, when discussing the Iranian nuclear issue and the 'threat' posed by Iran, most of the reports we get from the international mainstream press tends to view things from a Western perspective. Like I mentioned before elsewhere here in DT, we tend to forgot that the Iraninans also have their own security concerns and interests to look out for. It has U.S. troops in 2 countries it shares common borders with. On it's western flank it has neighbours who are aligned with the U.S. and who during the Iran/Iraq war poured billions and all their diplomatic support in ensuring an Iraqi victory. Unless Iran is attacked by the U.S. or by Israel for whatever reason, and despite all the nonsense the Iranian leader has said in the past, which is intended for domestic comsumption, I can't see any reasons why it would want to initiate military action.I think you raise the key point, does SA just buy "fancy toys" like you say or do they spend some of that money on training,parts,etc..? There's not a whole lot in the open source literature out there to let us know about how well trained and motivated your average SA soldier is.
Okay what I mean by simple tasks is preventive maintainance like making sure oil and other things are okay with your tank. Saudi made right decision in getting this equipment or arms from the U.S. but it come with conditions. When or if a conflict with Iran the Saudi can conduct joint operations with U.S. because it is has communication and same equipment. The Saudis or lsraelis can't do long term campaign against Iran without the U.S. because of supplies and other issues. So if this do happen they will have U.S. backing they going to need it. Now back to the question about Iran can Saudi fight Iran in a major conflict no. Iran has to many and they are willin to die in big number I don't see that happening one on one the Saudis not ready for that I can said this Iran talk a big game but they are afraid of the U.S. they want to defend against there so call revoluntion. They talk alot of bull@#$. The Saudi need the weapons to be able defend theirself. The overall conclusion is that the Iranian did takeover a holy site in Saudi Arabia in 1980 can't remember the exact year but I know it was in that time frame. Saudi need this weapons deal to defend the holy sites because the King is the guardian of the holy sites so it makes sense to get all it can why not buy the best if you have the money.
Saudi participation in event of a 'clash' with Iran would probably be confined to the RSAF taking part, alongside the USAF and USN, in strikes against Iran and the Saudi navy defending it's waters against possible Iranian incursions. Short of an actual land invasion of Iran, which is extremely unlucky, I can't see how the Saudi army would have an actual role to play.
Yes I agree with you about Iranians having a trick up there sleeves I just don't know what it is. It is something to think about. The Saudis are getting the training for the weapons they purchase. The U.S. give Saudi the most assistance and these improvement are going on as we speak. The problem go deeper than that. The Saudi trying get more citizens to have or start getting more technicial skills. The King trying to get a society to accept modern ways that don't goes against Islamic principles. The whole point is the Saudis are taking on these issues with dailogue with religious leaders.I have always been wondering what this 'trump card' in Iran's hand is. Either it's just saber-rattling to give us a false sense of Iran's capabilities, or might the Iranian military have a trick or 2 up it's sleeve that would take even the western armed forces by surprise ?
Extremely large number of missles being fired from several positions at once to overwhelm their enemies ? Nuclear or chemical weapons ? I wonder what it could be...
Also, what would be nice to know is that although SA has begun a massive procurement and modernization programme, how have it's allies, namely USA etc. helped improve their skills and technical knowledge on all these advanced systems ?
Shouldn't SA be focusing equally on training ?
Believe it or not the SA has great missile and air defense system against Iran. They already purchase some of these in the 90's. There air defense has a U.S. defense system in the area of Persian Gulf. The SA also has a working intergrated network. I remember reading and hearing about a big air defense project assisted by the U.S. Don't know to much about there chemical or bio weapons. I will do some research on that.