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| Arabia | |
| Saudis buying advanced fighters | |
| 2011-06-08 | |
| RIYADH: Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, state minister and commander of the National Guard, on Tuesday confirmed plans to purchase advanced war planes for the security organization. “Our aircraft purchase plan is progressing well. We don’t face any obstacles,” he said. Miteb made this comment while attending a graduation ceremony for the infantry regiment of the Prince Turki Brigade in Khashm Al-An, near Riyadh. He did not say what kind of aircraft the National Guard was looking for. However, he pointed out that his organization required aircraft with certain specifications. “It will take time as such planes will not be readily available like cars,” he pointed out.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 Ditto on the Kurds. They should be our natural allies in that part of the world. Freedom minded, rough fighters. And they like Americans. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2011-06-08 21:38 |
| #7 Umm, rjschwarz, Saladin was a Kurd. He was only claimed by the Arabs because he was successful. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2011-06-08 18:36 |
| #6 Saudi pilots are considered good if they can land the plan without damaging it. They have to hire mercenaries to do the actual fighting since the average Saudi can't be told what to do by a foreigner. A Saudi pilot in the hottest western plane vs an Israeli in a mid-range plane is a no contest fight. The Saudi is a dead man. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-06-08 12:14 |
| #5 Three points: (1) We should have been selling military equipment (primarily defensive stuff) to the Saudi's and Gulf States since the Shah fell. Built up a NATA style alliance and sold them export models of stuff. They'd have the pride and fig leaf of defending themselves and we'd make bank selling it to them. (2) Seems to me that the same cultural problems that create a third world nation also prevent the dedication needed to create first class pilots so they would be a limited threat if they went bad. (3) We should be creating some kind of Kurdish Legion as they have been the best fighters in the region since Saladan. They are Muslim, and they are reasonable, and could use the exposure. Such a legion could get proper training and do UN missions in Arab countries so that Christians didn't need to get involved at all. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2011-06-08 11:54 |
| #4 de Medici's comment put's an ex-Ranger's story into perspective. He said that after Desert Storm, King Fahd did not trust his own bodyguards, so the US "rented" a bunch of special ops folks to him. It seems that even in 1993, the Saudis were worried about Bin Laden. Thus he spent a year in Saudi being fed, housed etc. by the royal family. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2011-06-08 11:33 |
| #3 The Saudis buy acres of stuff. Then they park it in warehouses or in the open line after line of it. They dont have any soldiers to man it, altho' they can "rent" soldiers.( I hear the pay is good and you get to drill a lot and never fight) The Saudis dont train their own people because nobody wants to trust their own people and besides their own people dont want nasty jobs like being a soldier for their country.( WHY should they?) Saudis automatically assume "somebody else" will defend their country for them. No real Saudi would actually get a dirty job when they can hire somebody who isnt a Saudi. And we all know what magnificent soldiers Arabs are, dont we? So the Saudi are buying modern "Advanced" aircraft? Yeah? A weapon is only as good as the man who is prepared to use it. What kind of fighting men does Saudi have? How do you say "Dwayne" in arabic? |
| Posted by: de Medici 2011-06-08 05:09 |
| #2 Selling advanced weapons to Soodis is like giving them to Iran. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-06-08 01:16 |
| #1 ...I'm guessin' they're gonna see what good used AH-64s are running these days. The Saudi NG is actually the royal family's private army - they are very dedicated to the al-Sauds, and their job is to keep them alive if everything goes to hell. It's interesting that the SNG is talking about getting its own air support...almost like they're concerned that the RSAF won't be willing or able to do it. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2011-06-08 01:16 |