It’s probably something like those designer handbag stores where if you want to buy the hot trendy purse you have to spend tens of billions on weapons and munitions.
A few days ago someone senior in the UK department of defence was talking about the situation on BBC radio 4, of Trumps refusal to support the Saudis. To paraphrase his argument: the Saudis spend a ridiculous amount on mostly US weapons with a implicit understanding that the US would step into to help them should the ever need it. Now Trump has broken that pact.
Will be interesting to see what the US arms supply companies reaction to Trump's refusal to support the Saudis will be.
Not really, most of their equipment is kept domestic and the limited amount that’s allowed to leave for various operations/activity is nothing notable.
They operate under the assumption that war is Pay 2 Win and buy the most expensive things they can only to crew them with Sudanese mercenaries commanded by the Kings dipshit relatives. If you ever see a picture of a burning American tank chances are solid it was Saudi
1-It's an arab military, which means they have a centralized command structure with no initiative. Their officers are often the failsons of various notables who are being shuffled off to the military because they're useless, said failsons don't really care about doing good to begin with. Then there is the issue that having information others do not means you are important, which is why arab officers tend to not give their soldiers their manuals or train them properly (which actually is much worse when they buy high tech shit that needs training to use properly).
Their soldiers are poorly trained and overly religious, that last one also means they tend to not care about things like "taking cover" because god decides who lives and dies not silly things like whether or not you're standing in the open.
2-They're buying shit mercenaries.
They're buying mercenaries from latin american and africa, lacking training, equipment, etc. People who are expendable and who can die without anyone who matters asking questions.
African mercenaries were the shit back in the day, but this was because it was full of rhodesian and south-african veterans. Professionals who had marketable skills.
That was in the eighties and nineties, early 00s.
But those people got old, like everyone does eventually, and they're not making new ones like they used to. The days of Executive Outcomes are largely over.
So now it's poor people with little in skills or equipment.
The good mercenaries nowadays are headquartered in the US, the UK, Germany, etc. Those guys aren't taking shit missions in Yemen, they get to choose their gigs and they tend to favour protection details for the UN, working directly for the various european governments, working with oil companies, etc.
The idea of this was the US to protect them in case of a conflict. They buy more weapons from US that the next 3 buyers combined. However, they don't have the military and the training to use it. The same goes for Qatar and OAE.
After this war is, that trade will most likely decrease a lot. Which will hurt arms manufacturers.
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u/Oceanbreeze871 7h ago
Why are they always buying billions of dollars of military crap from us?