[Mariner]

“Russia REALLY wants a test bed of their S-400 against our F-35.”

Out 35s and 22s, and Israels 35s routinely test against eh S-300 and 400 in Syria.

He already knows he can’t touch them.

This is a political move to drive a wedge between the gulf States and the US.

[Zhang Fei]

[This is a political move to drive a wedge between the gulf States and the US.]

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I don’t think there’s any contest. The Gulf states know Russia can’t protect them from invasion or evict an invader after the fact. However, Trump’s reluctance to punish Iran for hammering the Gulf states via attacks on shipping and now oil production infrastructure is probably giving them heartburn. For decades, the Gulf kingdoms have acted as weapons depots for the West, complete with Western contractors to maintain their weaponry, so that we can simply fly in men and operate their equipment, in the event they are invaded by hostile foreign powers. This scenario first played out during Desert Shield, when the 82nd and 101st landed in Saudi Arabia to dissuade Saddam from crossing the Iraqi/Saudi border.

The Gulf kingdoms’ justifiable fear of palace coups means they can’t let their people get too proficient, lest they turn those weapons on the royal palace. And in their defense, it has to be said that the Saudis and Kuwaitis covered most of the cost of Desert Storm, for us doing something we would have needed to do, anyway, to prevent Saddam from unifying the region’s oil resources under a single banner and really super-charging his quest to become a latter day, world-conquering Muhammad reincarnated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idris_of_Libya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14_July_Revolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revolution_of_1952