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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
Beduin warrior
DURING ITS INFANCY in the 1930s, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
needed little as far as national security was concerned--
protection of the king and the royal family, safety of the holy
places, and nominal defense of its territory, much of which
needed no other protection than that provided by its natural
desolation. Sixty years later, however, as producer and largest
exporter of oil and owner of about one-fourth of all proven
reserves, the land of the Al Saud (the House of Saud) was in the
world limelight. Its security was of major international concern,
not only because the economies of many industrialized countries
depended on Saudi oil, but because of the kingdom's contribution
to stability and political moderation in the Middle East.
King Abd al Aziz ibn Abd ar Rahman Al Saud, restorer of Al
Saud and founder of the kingdom in 1932, had many sons, four of
whom (all born to different mothers) have succeeded him to the
throne. The defense and security organizations introduced under
Abd al Aziz and particularly promoted by King Faisal ibn Abd al
Aziz Al Saud during his reign (ruled 1964-75), have grown and
developed into three independent entities: the armed forces, the
paramilitary forces of the national guard, and the police and
security forces of the Ministry of Interior. In 1992 King Fahd
ibn Abd al Aziz Al Saud, who had been on the throne for a decade,
was at the apex of the security system, which was headed by three
amirs (princes) of the royal family--all sons of Abd al Aziz. The
regular armed forces--army, navy, air force, and air defense
force--were under the Ministry of Defense and Aviation, headed by
Amir Sultan ibn Abd al Aziz Al Saud. The internal security and
police functions, and paramilitary frontier guard elements were
under Amir Nayif ibn Abd al Aziz Al Saud, the minister of
interior. The Saudi Arabian National Guard, charged with the
protection of vital installations, maintaining internal security,
and supporting the Ministry of Defense as required, was headed by
Amir Abd Allah ibn Abd al Aziz Al Saud, who was also crown
prince.
The manpower of the regular armed forces was estimated by the
London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies to be
106,000 in 1992. The army was reported to have 73,000 personnel;
the navy, 11,000; the air force, 18,000; and the air defense
forces, 4,000. The active-duty strength of the national guard was
believed to be about 55,000; part-time tribal levies accounted
for 20,000 more.
Despite the tens of billions of dollars spent on modernizing
its armed forces, the kingdom remained vulnerable. Although the
communist threat in the region had dissipated, the country's oil
wealth made it a potential target for radical states with more
powerful military establishments. The nation's defense presented
complex problems. Its territory was as large as the United States
east of the Mississippi River, and the limited Saudi forces had
to be concentrated in widely scattered areas of greatest
strategic sensitivity. Its stronger neighbors had greater
experience in warfare and had larger numbers under arms. Although
the country had never faced a direct threat of invasion, its
situation changed dramatically in August 1990 when Iraq occupied
Kuwait and massed its troops on Saudi Arabia's northern border.
The national guard was rushed to the border, but it was clear
that Saudi forces alone would be unable to prevent Iraq from
seizing the Saudi and Persian Gulf states' oil assets. King Fahd
accordingly turned to the United States and others for help.
A Saudi general, the son of the minister of defense and
aviation, was named co-commander of Operation Desert Storm, the
allied campaign that drove the Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in
February 1991. The Saudi army had its first taste of combat
operations, combining with United States forces and forces from a
number of Western and other Arab states to liberate Kuwait City.
The kingdom pledged more than US$16.8 billion to support the
United States costs of deploying its forces and to provide
financial assistance to other countries that contributed forces
to Desert Storm or were disadvantaged by compliance with
sanctions imposed against Iraq. The war exposed the country's
need for improved deterrence, and King Fahd announced that a
major expansion of the armed forces would be carried out during
the remainder of the 1990s. His goals included a doubling of the
army's size, the creation of a new reserve system, and additional
combat aircraft for the air force and warships for the navy.
The army was the senior and largest of the services as well
as the most influential in the military hierarchy and the
government. The chief of staff of the armed forces has invariably
been an army general. The air force was second in seniority,
enjoying considerable popularity among the younger members of the
royal family and other elites who joined to train as pilots and
held many of the commands. The air force was the first line of
defense against surprise attack aimed at Persian Gulf oil
installations. Its skilled pilots flew thousands of sorties in
the Persian Gulf War and repelled Iranian intrusions during the
1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. In the judgment of the United States
Department of Defense, the air force and the national guard, the
two branches with the closest affiliation with the United States,
were the most combat-ready and reliable of the armed services
during the Persian Gulf crisis.
The air defense force, separated from the army in the mid1980s , operated fixed and mobile antiaircraft missile systems
that guarded cities, oil facilities, and other strategic sites,
chiefly along the Persian Gulf. These missile systems, along with
the combat aircraft and ground radar stations, were linked to the
Peace Shield air defense network, which depended heavily on
surveillance by aircraft of the Saudi-operated and United Statessupported airborne warning and control system (AWACS).
The Saudi navy remained a coastal force operating from bases
along the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Its potential was growing
with the delivery of four French guided-missile frigates in the
mid-1980s and three more scheduled to be commissioned in the mid1990s . The navy assisted in escort and minesweeping operations in
the Persian Gulf during the tense "tanker war" period of the
1980s.
A problem shared by all four armed services was the constant
need for personnel qualified to operate and maintain a mixed
inventory of advanced equipment and weapons. The limited pool of
military recruits had forced Saudi Arabia to rely heavily on high
technology. The Saudi policy of purchasing its weapons from
diverse military suppliers contributed to the problem and
introduced a hybrid character to the services that hampered their
overall efficiency.
The special military relationship between the United States
and Saudi Arabia since the mid-1940s has been built around United
States policy to promote stability and peace in the Persian Gulf
region. Although the two countries had no agreement on basing or
facilities, Saudi Arabia has sought United States deployments of
ships and fighter or surveillance aircraft in emergency
situations. The huge scale of the Saudi base complexes and the
interoperability of equipment have facilitated such deployments.
Initially, United States assistance consisted of weapons and
equipment and of advisers to develop the organization and to help
train Saudi forces. Since the mid-1960s, with the rise in oil
revenues, the Saudis have been able to pay for the needed arms,
equipment, and instructors, as well as for the services of the
United States Army Corps of Engineers, which was responsible for
the construction of bases, military housing, and other
facilities. Until 1990, less than 20 percent of approximately
US$60 billion in military sales was for weapons; most
expenditures were for infrastructure, maintenance, spare parts,
and training. The need for new weapons and replenishment of
stocks used during the Persian Gulf War triggered a surge of new
military orders that were pending as of 1992. Faced with
political obstacles in obtaining United States arms, the Saudis
have maintained supply relationships with other countries,
notably Britain and France, which have had training missions in
the kingdom for many years. The number of Western military
personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia has deliberately been kept to
a minimum, but large numbers of civilians--under contract to
corporations--have worked in the kingdom in training,
maintenance, and logistics functions.
Data as of December 1992
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