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Tactical Newswires
January 3, 2012
Royal Saudi Air Force and F-15SA deal
Saudi Arabia signed a major arms deal with the United States last week to buy 84 F-15SA fighter jets, 70 Boeing AH-64D Block III Apache attack helicopters, 36 AH-6i light attack helicopters, 72 Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk transport helicopters and 12 MD-530F helicopters. The deal also includes an upgrading programme concerning 70 F-15Ss in service with the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF).
This is the first achievement of Saudi Minister Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz since he took over the Defence Ministry two months ago.
Reports from Riyadh suggest that it was Vice-Minister of Defence Prince Khaled Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz and RSAF Commander General Mohammad Al-Ayesh who signed the deal from the Saudi side, while Prince Salman was following the event through a video call with Prince Khaled.
Concerning the F-15SA deal, the same reports mention that the Americans withdrew their objections to the Saudi plans about how to distribute the new fighter jets to their airbases.
The same reports add that the Saudis are showing satisfaction with the possibility of their new fighter jets using Tabuk air base, but they will not talk about it for now so as to avoid embarrassing US President Barack Obama who is preparing to run for the upcoming presidential elections in the United States.
As for the F-15S fighter jets that should be upgraded before year 2014 as agreed, there will be no changes regarding the rules. They will continue patrolling all areas along the Saudi border and using the Tabuk air base for landing and taking off without the need of taking permanent positions there.
Sources close to the situation say that both sides discussed all the details concerning the possibility of equipping the F-15SA with all the advanced equipment with which the F-15s in service by the US Air Force (USAF) are fitted out.
Sources close to the Saudi Defence Ministry do not confirm or deny that the F-15SA fighter jets that will be delivered to RSAF will be equipped with long-range radars or long-range air-to-air or to air-to-ground missile systems.
But in the meantime, these sources add that there will be contacts with Raytheon on the missile systems with the approval of the Pentagon.
According to the same sources, the Saudis and the Americans agreed that they have enough time to decide on this matter, and can leave it until after the presidential elections in the United States this year, especially that the delivery of the first batch of F-15SAs will not take place before year 2015.