Military reports indicated that US defense companies play an important role in the Saudi defense sector, as companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and L3 Harris have long-standing ties to Saudi defense establishments.
Recent information data showed that the Saudi regime has become the largest importer of American weapons as it concludes deals worth billions of dollars.
In a statement, the Saudi-American Business Council said that the US has delivered more than 101 billion riyals ($27 billion) from foreign military sales and weapons to the Saudi regime since (2017-2020).
The Council also stressed that since Mohamed bin Salman assumed the mandate, Saudi has become one of the largest spending countries on buying weapons, especially for the defense sector.
In a global assessment by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute of the largest arms importing countries, Saudi Arabia ranked fifth in the world in terms of spending on arms, and the US ranked first in the world for arms exporting countries in the world with 37% of arms sales globally between 2016 and 2020.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked first in importing from the USA, and fifth globally in importing arms in general, as the military expenditures of the Saudi regime in total amounted to 7.4% of GDP in 2020.
The basic expenditures of projects serving the military infrastructure in the Kingdom in the year 2020 also included the launch of the first phase of the construction of King Salman Air Base facilities, the first phase of implementing the transfer of the King Faisal Air Academy, and raising the capacity of the medical complex of the security forces by 200%.
According to the contract awarding index database of the Saudi American Business Council, the King Salman Air Base and King Faisal Air Academy projects will cost 7.5 billion riyals ($2 billion) each.
They have been allocated to a group of local construction companies, and they also included projects designated for a specific purpose under the military budget for the year 2021; 80% of the operation plan is completed within the ten-year plan of the Ministry of Defense, the second and final phases of the King Salman Base and the transfer of the King Faisal Military Academy, as well as building defense capabilities in 8 military institutions.
During the past years, Saudi Arabia concluded many deals with the USA that included military aircraft and spare parts from foreign military sales, ground combat technologies, as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technologies and related maintenance, repair and operation, and economic balance programs that enable the transfer of knowledge and technology.
The deals also included the delivery of 23 Patriot PAC-3 air and missile defense systems, as well as the delivery of 154 Boeing F-15SA combat aircraft.
In 2017, Washington concluded an arms deal worth 413 billion riyals ($110 billion) that included THAAD missile systems and several air, land, and sea vehicles, in addition to munitions contracts.
In 2020, Boeing received approval to deliver a purchase of 1.1 billion riyals ($290 million) of small-diameter bomb munitions and entered into a potential ten-year contract worth 37 billion riyals ($9.8 billion) to modernize the F-15 fleet to Saudi Arabia.
Other major sales to the Kingdom included high-mobility multi-role vehicles, light armored vehicles, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, as well as multi-role combat ships.
Billions or trillions of dollars of the capabilities of the people are now spent only on protecting the Saudi regime, realizing the dreams of its princes, and destroying the cities and villages around them, without considering the poor people of the Kingdom. On the contrary, people’s lives have become more difficult and poor due to the scarce economic policies, and the impact of its failure on the increasingly high prices, high taxes, and cutting the high-cost premiums for citizens. So, how long will these policies continue despite the suffering of society?
