Posted on 01/26/2017 11:03:07 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Jan 25 Saudi Arabia flaunted its new F-15SA fighter jet at an airshow in Riyadh on Wednesday, demonstrating that it has begun receiving items purchased six years ago in the priciest-ever U.S. arms sale to a foreign country.
King Salman and his son, Defence Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, watched the spectacle as graduates of the King Faisal Air College performed military marches and fighter jets swooped overhead.
The Obama administration approved the $60 billion deal in 2010 amid mounting U.S. and Saudi tensions with Iran. The deal dwarfed previous multibillion-dollar sales to Saudi Arabia, which for years has been the biggest U.S. arms buyer.
In addition to the 84 Boeing F-15SA fighters, the deal included orders for upgrades to Saudi Arabia's 70 older F-15s, HARM AGM-88 Anti-Radiation Missiles, Laser JDAM and Enhanced Paveway munitions and related equipment and services.
The sale was a major win for Boeing, which has faced competition from Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter. Boeing also clinched weapons sales to Qatar and Kuwait last year.
"The F-35 was displacing all other players. But fourth generation production models, especially Boeing F-15s, are going to have a longer life than predicted," said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Virginia-based Teal Group.
Riyadh placed its order for the fighter jets to support its chief foreign policy goal of rolling back Iranian influence around the region, according to statements by U.S. officials at the time.
Six years later, questions linger about how such expensive hardware will help the kingdom win wars in places like Yemen, where it has struggled to confront what it sees as Iranian expansion since intervening in the civil war in March 2015.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Just a word of wisdom to the king of Saudi Arabia, you might have bought some of the best weapons in the world but the people who built them can still put you in the ground if you get out of line.
Saudi Arabia is NOT our friend.
They finance terrorism and are responsible for 9-11.
We ought be at war with these scum.
In my opinion the ruling Saudis should be having a much different - much more dynamic and exciting - experience with our weapons.
bet we have deactivation hidden circuitry that we can use in case of attacks from our planes..push a button, and it crashes..
No, but the Saudis are incapable of maintaining the weapons systems we sell them. They hire foreign contractors, many of whom helped build those systems, to maintain them.
When Iran fell, US contractors removed critical F-14 components before unassing that country.
Hear hear,
IMO we should not sell advanced equipment to ME Countries.
The only ME country that should have the best...Israel.
As a child I read in Reader’s Digest about the Russian pilot who defected with his MiG, to Japan I think.
He was trained that if his plane was going to fall into enemy hands he should push a self-destruct button; he was assured there was a timer, thus allowing him to escape.
Turns out the button was wired directly to explosives. There was no timer.
We should do something like that, just for kicks. And by kicks I mean “for the amusement of my fellow Americans, whose tax dollars paid for that plane”.
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