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F-15 is superior aircraft to f-16.. the only reason saudi didnt get f-16 is because they didnt wanted it..i think the reason Saudi get the f-15 in first place is that Israel didnt felt threatened..besides saudi Arabia has never engaged in any arab Israel wars
and just to add sauid arabia air force is definetly the most powerful air force in muslim countries probably competed only by turkish air force..
regarding infrastruture..saudi arabi has nearly completly indigneoused its man power in its force..those who are left are relaible persons from countries like pakistan..
the real problem is there man power in other sectors..and more importantly their complete laack of other industries..saudi depend upto 95% on oil..its a little too much by now they should have improved in sectors of education..health etc..they should develop their own people instead of importing..i mean they have population of 2 crore why are they short of man power...
For its part, Israel has been noticeable for its silence on the sale. In the past, Israel has protested similar arms deliveries to the Saudis or issued cautionary warnings. The German publication Der Spiegel, which broke the story, said the deal was actually cleared by both Israel and the United States before Germany would proceed. For the United States, the long-desired tank sale could also be serving as means “to placate the Saudis,” who were furious when President Obama withdrew his support for Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, allowing a long-time ally to fall.
The probable reason for the lack of Israeli objections to the Leopard purchase is that Israel has become a silent associate of Saudi Arabia’s against the looming Iranian threat to both countries. In Israel’s view, any weapon that strengthens the Saudi kingdom and does not jeopardise Israeli security, such as 200 modern German tanks, also indirectly adds to its strength in regard to the Iranian danger. Besides, the Saudis have never represented a direct military threat to Israel, having taken only a very limited role in the Arab wars against her.
The Royal Saudi Air Force - A Paper Tiger, Minus the Tiger
The Royal Saudi Air Force couldn't fight (or fly) it's way out of a wet paper bag. They spent a whole lot of money on 72 new F-15S's, but have a pilot corps that are "fair-weather" flyers (both figuratively and literally). But even if they had pilots that would fly under all conditions (particularly combat conditions), too bad - they don't have any maintenance capability. All of that are done by American ex-pats (for F-15's) and British (for Tornado's). A side note here: There may be only 4-500 Americans servicing the F-15s, but nearly 3000 Brits to service half that many Tornado's. The joke at Dhahran AB is that the static display of a Tornado on a pedestal at the main gate is the only Tornado that they can keep in the air. You also have to understand how the money flows to get an even better idea of RSAF readiness (or total lack thereof). All Base commanders usually are members of the Royal family (or married into it) - and it is a money cow. The greatest number of personnel on an RSAF base is TCN's (third-country-nationals), thousands and thousands of Bangladesh, Indian, Philippine workers. Contracts are written up that provide millions in kick-backs - some of course goes to the base commander. But that doesn't even touch the billions of dollars into the purchase of all those aircraft - it's for the kickbacks, not national defense (what do you think the U.S. Air Force is there for?). Now American defense contractors make a killing, why should they care either? For example. first Boeing and then Raytheon made billions on putting in a highly sophisticated air command and control system called "Peace Shield", but it was and remains flawed. One example: The system is suppose to identify friendly vs. hostile aircraft so the Royal Saudi Air Defense Command (that's right a service totally separate from the RSAF)can fire. The RSAF has a control command which is suppose to tell the Air defense people to "hold fire". But what really happens is that when the RSAF pushes the button to command "hold fire" the Air Defense consoles light-up with the command to "fire". As if this minor technical flaw wasn't enough, billions in billing were added to give all these command centers filtered air systems for protection against NBC. Great on paper to make the billing statement, but non-existant in reality. I could go on-and-on about lack of training as well. One example has Saudi maintenence personnel towing a "hot" (just landed) F-15 into a hangar. Plane catches fire, burns up with the hangar. What happened? Well no discipline from the Saudis, but their training records were pulled and numerous ex-pats sent home because they had signed off on training them. Since the training obviously did not stick, it was obviously an ex-pat trainer who was to blame. Not there Saudi NCO or Officer chain-of-command, but ex-pats. The only time a saudi maintenence troop is allowed anywhere near an aircraft with any tool in his hand is when Saudi VIPs are on a tour - it would be funny if these senior RSAF officers knew enough to ask their troops what they maintennce was being done - but they don't. Don't even get into the sub-levels of tribal allegiences that totally disrupts any concept of chain-of-command or military discipline. If you are from the right tribe you get the works, guick promotions (get the answers to your SKT and promotion tests),and other perks - even out-of-Kingdom training (like in the U.S.), even if you just burnt down a hangar on top of a $50M F-15 (oh yes folks the Saudi payment for each aircraft is about double for all those kick-backs to Prince Sultan, Minister of Defense and Aviation (he owns/oversees Saudi Arabian Airlines as well). But if you are one of the few motivated, intelligent members of the RSAF and happen to be from the wrong tribe - well if you were ever a first yearman at VMI/Citadel you sorta get my drift. To wrap this up, the RSAF is the most efficient branch of the Saudi military (with the exception of it's internal intelligence network) - so you can imagine the horror stories from ex-pats working with the Saudi Land Forces, Naval Forces, or Saudi National Guard. So that leaves us with the question of who protects all those vast oil fields - that's right, our good old Uncle Sam. .Well the Royal family has our military protect their entire country, but they have a fine cadre of ex-CIA, ex-FBI, ex-Navy Seals getting paid very well to be their own private security arm (not unlike Saddam's Republican Guard).
We need a light strike aircraft with cheap flying and maintenance costs. The Gripen and jf-17 is in consideration.
Saudi RSAF should seriously consider both JF-17 and J-10B as part of its strike capability. There are two powerful arguments for this strategy:
1. It is a good idea not to put all your eggs in the same basket ( i.e. Western aircrafts ) because of the danger of Embargo from the West in case of hostilities with ISRAEL. Always a good idea to diversify your risk.
2. If RSAF have a few squadrons of JF-17 and J-10B and if ever they have a need, PAF pilots could assist in matter of few hours. Also there have been rumors recently that the JF-17blkII won't be having the IRST and such and that is very disappointing considering that we were all anticipating all these goodies in the next block, but i hope these rumors are proven wrong.
Cheers
The RSAF has much better and more capable aircraft for strike and air superiority role. The Tornado's and F-15's (armed with AESA's) are for strike role while the Typhoons (Also equipped with AESA radar) are for air superiority role.
I'm not trying to undermine the capabilities of JF-17 or J-10 but JF-17 and J-10 are cheaper alternatives for countries that can't afford American, European, and Russian aircraft, and JF-17 has yet to receive upgrades like AESA radar, IRST, refueling probe, composites, and standoff weapons integration.