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Saudi Arabia
Cooperation with the United States
Between 1947 and 1991, Saudi Arabia's purchases under the Foreign
Military Sales program of the United States Department of Defense
totaled approximately US$60 billion. More than 80 percent of these
purchases were for construction of infrastructure--bases and command
and control facilities--together with maintenance, spare parts,
and training. Fewer than 20 percent of the purchases were for
weapons.
The first United States military mission of any consequence arrived
in Saudi Arabia in 1943, but the first significant mutual defense
agreement was not formalized until June 1951. As a result of that
agreement, a United States Military Training Mission (USMTM) arrived
for duty in the kingdom in 1953 to supervise all military assistance
and training activities. Until the late 1960s, this assistance
was provided primarily on a grant basis. During the reign of Saud,
the government was continually faced with large budget deficits
despite increasing oil revenues. By 1964, after Saud had been
deposed and Faisal had become king, the country was on a better
economic footing and it was able to pay for the major purchases
of arms, infrastructure, and training services that followed.
Initially, the primary purpose of the United States in establishing
the special relationship with Saudi Arabia was to check the spread
of Soviet influence in that area of the world and the consequent
threat to Middle East oil. The Saudis were conscious of the Soviet
danger, and the royal family was inherently anticommunist; nevertheless,
because of proximity, Israel and Iran were perceived to be the
most immediate threats to the security of the kingdom. Saudi Arabia
did not want the Arabian Peninsula to become an arena of superpower
contention and was opposed to the establishment of United States
bases or to the stationing in the kingdom of large numbers of
United States military personnel.
After the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, which triggered a sharp
increase in oil prices, Saudi Arabia was able to allocate large
sums to the modernization and training of the armed forces. Until
the late 1980s, the primary areas of activity by the United States
were the wide range of construction activities by the Army Corps
of Engineers, the Saudi Naval Expansion Program, and the Saudi
Ordnance Corps Program to establish an integrated logistics, supply,
and maintenance system. In 1988 the Corps of Engineers completed
its program that had kept it engaged in the kingdom for twenty-three
years.
President Jimmy Carter's proposal to sell advanced F-15 fighter
aircraft to Saudi Arabia in 1978 and his proposal to loan and
later to sell the kingdom AWACS aircraft after the outbreak of
the Iran-Iraq War in 1980 touched off bitter disputes in Congress.
The sale of the F-15s was approved under conditions that limited
their range and offensive power because of fears that they could
tip the regional balance against Israel. President Ronald Reagan
decided the sale of the AWACS aircraft should proceed to help
the Saudis guard against attacks on their oil installations. He
urged that the transfer of five AWACS and seven aerial refueling
tankers be approved. The package also included auxiliary fuel
tanks for the F-15 fighters and more than 1,000 Sidewinder air-to-air
missiles. For Saudi Arabia, the purchase request became a test
of the firmness of the relationship, but for the United States
it became a political nightmare because Israel and its supporters
in the United States raised strenuous objections to the sale.
After lengthy congressional hearings and investigations, the package
was narrowly approved with special restrictions on the use of
the AWACS aircraft.
In 1985 President Reagan sought authority to sell Saudi Arabia
forty-two additional F-15s, antiaircraft missiles, Harpoon antiship
missiles, and Blackhawk troop-carrying helicopters. Again, the
proposal raised a storm of opposition in Congress and had to be
withdrawn. In 1986 and 1988, scaled-down packages were introduced
and eventually approved by Congress after Stinger antiaircraft
and Maverick antitank missiles were deleted. Among the approved
items were Bradley fighting vehicles, TOW II antitank missiles,
electronic upgrades for the F-15s, and twelve additional F-15s
to remain in the United States until needed as replacements.
United States arms transfer agreements with Saudi Arabia increased
dramatically in 1990. Of a total of US$14.5 billion in contracts
signed, US$6.1 billion preceded the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
They included LAVs, TOW II launchers and missiles, and 155mm howitzers,
all for the national guard, 315 M1A2 tanks, and 30 tank recovery
vehicles. After the invasion, the United States hastily arranged
a package that included F-15 aircraft, M1A2 and M-60A3 tanks and
other armored vehicles, Stinger, TOW II, and Patriot missiles,
Apache helicopters, and about 10,000 trucks.
A second phase of the arms package, worth an estimated US$14
billion, was postponed in early 1991 to reassess Saudi needs in
the postwar atmosphere in the Persian Gulf. It was reported to
include additional F-15s, M1A2 tanks, AWACS aircraft, and Bradley
fighting vehicles. As of the close of 1991, the United States
faced the question of reconciling Saudi Arabia's desire for further
large-scale arms purchases to build its deterrent strength with
the United States desire to limit the export of advanced weaponry
to the volatile Middle East region. The issue was linked to negotiations
over the preliminary positioning of equipment for up to one army
corps in depots on Saudi territory to permit the rapid deployment
of United States ground forces in the event of renewed Middle
East hostilities.
Data as of December 1992
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