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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBillions spent on U.S. weapons didn't protect Saudi Arabia's most critical oil sites
For years, Saudi Arabia has been a major buyer of U.S.-made weapons. That relationship intensified after President Trump took office, with the American leader pushing oil-rich Riyadh to buy more weapons and Saudi Arabia pledging a purchase of $110 billion in U.S. arms just months after his inauguration.
After this weekend, when a devastating attack on Saudi oil facilities blindsided the kingdom, some observers were left wondering what protection Riyadhs outreach to the United States has bought it.
Notwithstanding the expensive military hardware purchased by Saudi Arabia, experts say, the Saturday attack represented an unusually well-planned operation that would have been difficult for even the most well-equipped and experienced countries to detect and neutralize...
And there's this from Trump's Russian bestie:
...Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to Saturdays attack with mockery. At an event Monday in Turkey, Putin suggested that Saudi Arabia buy the Russian-made S-300 or S-400 missile defense system, as Iran and Turkey had done. They will reliably protect all infrastructure objects of Saudi Arabia, Putin said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/09/17/billions-spent-us-weapons-didnt-protect-saudi-arabias-most-critical-oil-sites-crippling-attack/?fbclid=IwAR15eXPK0FKH_iqgRPxYAjFUzhaCg_l8wHIhbG1mkqRrFobp_kh7WaQqL-U
magicarpet
(13,939 posts).....they will fix them right up,.. with an anti-drone missile defense systems.
The kingdoms radar system much be third world rated and way sub par....
Kaleva
(36,146 posts)NCLefty
(3,678 posts)It looks dumb now to have spent all this money on stuff that can't defeat this new threat, of course.
I agree we will probably develop something now, if we weren't already working on it. Imagine an attack from a bunch of drones with small, radioactive payloads. They could carpet a city in light radiation, enough to effectively ruin it. No one would want to live there.
We knew this was coming, but no one really had to deploy anything while there were no attacks. That's over now.