This would be interesting to see. When was the last time Saudi ground troops fought in a conflict?
We’ve been the Saudis proxy army for the last 50 years.
1918?
Yom Kippur?
you haven’t been paying attention to Yemen these days, have you?
Recently in Yemen. Their performance against ragged tribal types is not impressive.
“When was the last time Saudi ground troops fought in a conflict?”
They are fighting today in Yemen, and had a few fatalities this week (Saudi Ministry of Defense troops).
The world has changed. The old joke about Saudi Arabia going to war, was wondering who would get the contract. That is still true to a good degree, but they have changed in their willingness to commit their own citizens to fight.
The Saudis have been talking about going to war in Syria since shortly after the new King came on board.
If they did jump in, they would bring along a bunch of “allies” (essentially mercenaries pimped out by their governments), and a lot of top of the line aircraft, tanks and precision weapons. Their Bedouin National Guard units turned out to be relatively effective light infantry, by Middle Eastern standards, that exceeded expectations during the Gulf War.
If they jump into a local war and lose however, the regime could be overthrown.