The Saudi Arabian Armed Forces (SAAF), also known as the Royal Saudi Armed Forces, are the military forces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It consists of the Saudi Arabian Land Forces, the Royal Saudi Navy, the Royal Saudi Air Force, the Royal Saudi Air Defense, and the Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force. The King of Saudi Arabia is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and forms military policy with the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior. The five Armed Forces are among eight military forces of Saudi Arabia, with the others including the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the Saudi Royal Guard Regiment and Saudi Arabian Border Guards.
Foreign relations of Saudi Arabia are the diplomatic and trade relations between Saudi Arabia and other countries around the world. The foreign policy of Saudi Arabia is focused on co-operation with the oil-exporting Gulf States, the unity of the Arab world, Islamic solidarity, and support for the United Nations. In practice, the main concerns in recent years have been relations with the US, the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iraq, the perceived threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the effect of oil pricing. Saudi Arabia contributes large amounts of development aid to Muslim countries. From 1986 to 2006, the country donated £49 billion in aid.
The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied states. It is manufactured by the U.S. defense contractor Raytheon and derives its name from the radar component of the weapon system. The AN/MPQ-53 at the heart of the system is known as the "Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target", or PATRIOT. The Patriot system replaced the Nike Hercules system as the U.S. Army's primary High to Medium Air Defense (HIMAD) system and replaced the MIM-23 Hawk system as the U.S. Army's medium tactical air defense system. In addition to these roles, Patriot has been given the function of the U.S. Army's anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, which is now Patriot's primary mission. The system is expected to stay fielded until at least 2040.
Nils Daniel Carl Bildt is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999. Bildt served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2014, and as Member of Parliament from 1979 to 2001.
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. As of 2017, it is the biggest manufacturer in Britain. Its largest operations are in the United Kingdom and United States, where its BAE Systems Inc. subsidiary is one of the six largest suppliers to the US Department of Defense. Other major markets include Australia, Canada, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Oman and Sweden, where Saudi Arabia is regularly among its top three sources of revenue. The company was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion purchase of and merger with Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc (GEC), by British Aerospace, an aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer.
Al Yamamah is the name of a series of record arms sales by the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia, paid for by the delivery of up to 600,000 barrels (95,000 m3) of crude oil per day to the British government. The prime contractor has been BAE Systems and its predecessor British Aerospace. The first sales occurred in September 1985 and the most recent contract for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon multirole fighters was signed in August 2006.
The Leopard 2 is a 3rd generation main battle tank originally developed by Krauss-Maffei in the 1970s for the West German army. The tank first entered service in 1979 and succeeded the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the West German Army. It is armed with a 120 mm smoothbore cannon made by Rheinmetall, and is powered by a V-12 twin-turbo diesel engine made by MTU Friedrichshafen. Various versions have served in the armed forces of Germany and 13 other European countries, as well as several non-European nations, including Canada, Chile, Indonesia, and Singapore. The Leopard 2 was used in Kosovo with the German Army, in Afghanistan with the Dutch, Danish and Canadian contributions to the International Security Assistance Force, and saw action in Syria with the Turkish Armed Forces.
The arms industry, also known as the defense industry, the military industry, or the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. Public sector and private sector firms conduct research and development, engineering, production, and servicing of military material, equipment, and facilities. Customers are the armed forces of states, and civilians. An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition - whether privately or publicly owned - are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination. Products of the arms industry include weapons, munitions, weapons platforms, military communications and other electronics, and more. The arms industry also provides other logistical and operational support.
The Saab Bofors Dynamics NLAW, also known as the MBT LAW or RB 57, is a fire-and-forget, lightweight shoulder-fired, and disposable (single-use) line of sight (LOS) missile system, designed for infantry use. The missile uses a soft-launch system and is guided by predicted line of sight (PLOS). It can carry out an overfly top attack (OTA) on an armoured vehicle, or a direct attack (DA) on structures and non-armoured vehicles.
Elbit Systems Ltd. is an Israel-based international defense electronics company engaged in a wide range of programs throughout the world. The company, which includes Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries, operates in the areas of aerospace, land and naval systems, command, control, communications, computers, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), advanced electro-optics, electro-optic space systems, electronic warfare suites, signal intelligence (SIGINT) systems, data links and communications systems and radios. The company also focuses on the upgrading of existing military platforms, developing new technologies for defense, homeland security and commercial aviation applications and providing a range of support services, including training and simulation systems. In 2016, Elbit Systems had approximately 13,895 employees, the majority of whom are engaged in engineering, mechanics, research and development, and other computing and technical areas. Elbit Systems' shares are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.
The Al-Khalid is a Pakistani main battle tank developed by Heavy Industries Taxila since the 1990s. It is based on the Chinese Type 90-IIM tan, whose original prototype was developed by China North Industries Corporation (Norinco) under the name MBT-2000.Around 310 Al Khalid MBTs had been produced by 2014.
The Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) is an Egypt-based Arab military organization established in 1975 by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar to supervise the collective development of the Arab defense industry. Following a gradual deterioration in relations between the AOI member-states, Egypt became sole owner of AOI in 1993. As well as meeting the requirements of the Egyptian military, AOI directs spare capacity to civilian programmes, including civilian transport and sanitation equipment; additionally, AOI has stated its intention of entering the wind power sector.
Canadian Arms Sales are governed by the country's Export and Imports Permits Act. Sales with the United States are also specifically regulated by the 1959 Defence Production Sharing Arrangement.
Sten Sture Tolgfors is a Swedish former politician, public affairs executive and government official who is serving as Governor of Västra Götaland County since 1 September 2022, having been appointed to the position on 9 June 2022.
Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), consisting of the Indian Ordnance Factories, now known as Directorate of Ordnance was an organisation, under the Department of Defence Production (DDP) of Ministry of Defence (MoD), Government of India. The 41 Indian Ordnance Factories have been converted into 7 Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs).
Altay is a Turkish modern main battle tank based on South Korean K2 Black Panther to be produced by BMC under design assistance and technology transfer by Hyundai Rotem. It is named in honor of Army General Fahrettin Altay who commanded the 5th Cavalry Corps in the final stage of the Turkish War of Independence. It is one of the most expensive tank designs with a unit cost of 13.75 million dollars. The first mass production of Altay will be combined with MKE made 55 calibre 120 mm main gun, Roketsan made advanced armor package along with Aselsan made active protection system, and Hyundai Doosan Infracore engine and SNT Dynamics transmission.
The PLZ-45 or Type 88 is a 155 mm self-propelled howitzer designed by Su Zhezi of 674 Factory, and developed by Norinco, 123 Factory, 127 Factory, 674 Factory and the Beijing Institute of Technology in the early 1990s for the export market. It is based on Norinco's Type 89 (PLL-01) 155 mm/45-calibre towed gun-howitzer.
According to the British government, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have long been close allies. Relations between the two countries date back to 1848, when Faisal bin Turki, ruler of the Second Saudi state, formally requested the support of the British Political Resident in Bushire for his representative in Trucial Oman.
Saudi Arabian–Swedish relations are the bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Sweden.
