The Saudi Arabian Armed Forces (SAAF) ( ar, القُوَّات المُسَلَّحَة العَرَبِيَّة السُّعُودِيَّة, Al-Quwwat al-Musallahah al-Malakiyah as-Su’ūdiyah), also known as the Royal Saudi Armed Forces, are the military forces of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...
. It consists of the
Saudi Arabian Land Forces
Royal Saudi Land Forces ( ar, القُوَّاتُ البَرِّيَّةُ المَلَكِيَّة السُّعُودِيَّة, Al-Quwwat al-Bariyah al-Malakiyah as-Su'udiyah) is the land warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of Saudi Ara ...
(or Army), the
Royal Saudi Navy
The Royal Saudi Navy ( ar, البَحْريَّة الْمَلكيَّة السُّعُودِيَّة, Al-Quwwat al-Bahriyah al-Arabiyah as-Su'udiyah) or Royal Saudi Naval Forces ( ar, القُوَّات البَحْريَّة الْمَلك ...
, the
Royal Saudi Air Force
The Royal Saudi Air Force ( ar, الْقُوَّاتُ الْجَوِّيَّةُ الْمَلَكِيَّةْ ٱلسُّعُوْدِيَّة, Al-Quwwat Al-Jawiyah Al-Malakiyah as-Su’udiyah) (RSAF) is the aviation branch of the Saudi Arabia ...
, the
Royal Saudi Air Defense
The Saudi Arabian Air Defense Forces or officially Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces (RSADF) ( ar, قُوَّات الدِفَاع الجوّي المَلكِيَّ السُّعُودِي) is the Anti-aircraft warfare, aerial defense service branch o ...
, and the
Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force
The Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force ( ar, قوة الصواريخ الإستراتيجية الملكية السعودية) or RSSMF is the fifth branch of the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces, responsible for commissioning long-range strategic mis ...
. The
King of Saudi Arabia
The king of Saudi Arabia is the monarchial head of state and ruler of Saudi Arabia who holds absolute power. He is the head of the Saudi Arabian royal family, the House of Saud. The king is called the "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" (), a ...
is the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces and forms military policy with the
Ministry of Defense
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
and the
Ministry of Interior
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
. The five Armed Forces are among eight
military forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
of Saudi Arabia, with the others including the
Saudi Arabian National Guard
The Saudi Arabian National Guard or SANG ( ar, الحَرَس الوَطنيّ, al-Ḥaras al-Waṭanī), also known as the "White Army", is one of the three major branches of the military forces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The national gua ...
(under the administrative control of the
Ministry of National Guard
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), the
Saudi Royal Guard Regiment
The Saudi Arabian Royal Guard ( ar, الحرس الملكي السعودي Al-Ḥars al-Malakī as-Suʿūdī) is a unit in the Saudi military forces. Originally an independent military force, the Royal Guards were incorporated into the Armed Fo ...
and
Saudi Arabian Border Guards
The General Directorate of Border Guard ( ar, المديرية العامة لحرس الحدود السعودية) is a Saudi agency responsible for guarding land and sea borders of the Kingdom. Awwad Eid Al-Aradi Al-Balawi is the Directorate ...
.
The Royal Saudi Armed Forces are one of the best-funded in the world,
[http://uk.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-spends-25-of-its-budget-on-its-military-2015-12" , 31 December 2015,] having the
world's sixth largest defense budget.
International Institute for Strategic Studies
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been Arundel House in London, England.
The 2017 Global Go To Think T ...
estimates in 2021 listed a total of 192,000 personnel (110,000 RSLF; 30,500 Navy; 23,000 Air Force; 20,000 Air Defense; and Strategic Missile Forces 5,500). The RSLF figure is a powerful force. The National Guard, with 100,000. The IISS Military Balance lists reserve personnel when reliable figures are available, but did not list any reserve personnel for Saudi Arabia.
History
The first steps towards building an institutionalised armed force for Saudi Arabia began in the 1940s, when Saudi regulars numbered perhaps 1,000–1,500, Gaub saying that officers mostly came from the Ottoman troops who had served the
Sharif of Mecca
The Sharif of Mecca ( ar, شريف مكة, Sharīf Makkah) or Hejaz ( ar, شريف الحجاز, Sharīf al-Ḥijāz, links=no) was the title of the leader of the Sharifate of Mecca, traditional steward of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and ...
before his being expelled in 1924. A
Ministry of Defense
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
was created in 1943; a military school founded in
Taif
Taif ( ar, , translit=aṭ-Ṭāʾif, lit=The circulated or encircled, ) is a city and governorate in the Makkan Region of Saudi Arabia. Located at an elevation of in the slopes of the Hijaz Mountains, which themselves are part of the Sarat M ...
, and the United Kingdom began efforts to try to build a professional force. After the failure of this UK programme, a subsequent U.S. programme which ran from 1951 also failed to reach its objective (the creation for three to five
Regimental Combat Team
A regimental combat team (RCT) is a provisional major infantry unit which has seen use by branches of the United States Armed Forces. It is formed by augmenting a regular infantry regiment with smaller combat, combat support and combat service ...
s. Growth of the armed forces was slowed to some 7,500–10,000 by 1953. Continued enlargement came to a halt in the late 1950s due to internal Saudi power struggles (including two plots by senior officers) and geo-political concerns, namely the
Free Officers Revolution in Egypt followed by a
brutal Baathist coup in Iraq, wherein expanded post-colonial Arab armies overthrew the domestic monarchies they had sworn allegiance too in 1952 and 1958 respectively. These event led the Saudis to the rational conclusion their own military could potentially pose a greater threat to their line than any of their neighbors. In the decades that followed, though the Kingdom experienced unprecedented economic expansion and modernization; the Royal Armed Forces remained contained. From the late 1950s to the late 1970s, the Saudis did expand and modernize their military but at a stagnate rate, this despite the fact the region was regularly at war. In 1969, South Yemeni
forces attacked the Kingdom along the border but were swiftly defeated by Royal and allied forces. When the
Yom-Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...
broke out in 1973, Saudi Arabia used "
Oil as a weapon", to aid the Arab cause; this strategy significantly influenced world opinion against Israel though to what extent is remains unclear. Following these successes, the Saudis would pursue only limited increased support for their armed forces in the wake of the
Grand Mosque Seizure
The Grand Mosque seizure lasted from 20 November 1979 to 4 December 1979, when extremist militants in Saudi Arabia calling for the overthrow of the House of Saud besieged and took over Masjid al-Haram, the holiest Islamic site, in the city of M ...
in 1979. In the 1980s Saudi Arabia became a major source of financial but not military assistance, for the
Mujahideen
''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...
in Afghanistan, and the regime of
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
in its
war against Revolutionary Iran. The
1991 Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
saw the greatest threat to the Kingdom in modern history and the largest deployment of Saudi Armed Forces in history, with all levels of the Saudi military actively participating as part of the
U.N. coalition against Iraq.
In 1987, members of the air force, army, and navy used to be mainly recruits from groups of people without a strong identity from the
Nejd
Najd ( ar, نَجْدٌ, ), or the Nejd, forms the geographic center of Saudi Arabia, accounting for about a third of the country's modern population and, since the Emirate of Diriyah, acting as the base for all unification campaigns by the H ...
tribal system and people from urban areas.
King Abdullah increasingly moved towards comprehensive military reform following what he considered a failed response by Saudi forces to
Houthi incursions in 2009.
In the early 2010s, after almost 20 years of relatively modest increases in military spending, the Saudi government embarked an unprecedented expansion of the Kingdom's armed forces. This shift in policy was spear-headed primarily by
Crown Prince
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wif ...
Mohammed bin Salman
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن سلمان آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Salmān Āl Su‘ūd; born 31 August 1985), colloquially known by his initials MBS or MbS, is Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. H ...
, who took over as Defense Minister in 2015. It is believed the continued high level expansion of the Saudi Armed Forces was a response to not only short term threats (including incursions by Yemeni rebels and the rise of ISIS) but long term regional strategic concerns, namely the increasing strength of Iran and the uncertain future of America's role in the region.
In 2019, the government of Saudi Arabia stated that women can start working in the military. In the past they could only work in police.
Military services
The armed forces are mainly the responsibility of the
Ministry of Defense and Aviation
The Saudi Arabian Armed Forces (SAAF) ( ar, القُوَّات المُسَلَّحَة العَرَبِيَّة السُّعُودِيَّة, Al-Quwwat al-Musallahah al-Malakiyah as-Su’ūdiyah), also known as the Royal Saudi Armed Forces, ar ...
, which also oversees the construction of
civilian airports as well as
military base
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...
s, and
meteorology
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...
departments.
Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz was Saudi Arabia's Minister of Defense and Aviation from 1962 to 2011. The vice minister,
Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, was his full brother and served until November 2011. His oldest son,
Khalid bin Sultan
Khaled bin Sultan Al Saud ( ar, خالد بن سلطان بن عبد العزيز آل سعود) (born 24 September 1949) is the former deputy minister of defense and a member of the House of Saud.
Early life and education
Prince Khalid was born ...
, was appointed assistant minister in 2001 and was in office until April 2013.
Defense spending
![2018 Military Expenditures by Country](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/2018_Military_Expenditures_by_Country.png)
Spending on defense and security has increased significantly since the mid-1990s and was about US$67 billion in 2013. Saudi Arabia ranks among the top five nations in the world in government spending for its military, representing about 9% of GDP in 2013. Its modern, high-technology arsenal makes Saudi Arabia among the world's most densely armed nations, with its military equipment being supplied primarily by the United States, France, and Britain.
["Country Profile: Saudi Arabia"](_blank)
, September 2006, United States Library of Congress According to
SIPRI Sipri may refer to:
*As-Safira, a city in Syria, known in pre-Islamic times as Sipri
*Shivpuri, a city and a municipality in Madhya Pradesh, India, formerly known as Sipri
*Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Stockholm Internatio ...
, in 2010–14 Saudi Arabia became the world's second largest arms importer, receiving four times more major arms than in 2005–2009. Major imports in 2010–14 included 45 combat aircraft from the United Kingdom, 38 combat helicopters from the U.S., 4 tanker aircraft from Spain and over 600 armored vehicles from Canada. Saudi Arabia has a long list of outstanding orders for arms, including 27 more combat aircraft from the United Kingdom, 154 combat aircraft from the U.S. and a large number of armoured vehicles from Canada.
The United States sold more than $80 billion in military hardware between 1951 and 2006 to the Saudi military. In comparison, the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
received $53.6 billion in U.S. military grants between 1949 and 2007. On 20 October 2010,
U.S. State Department notified Congress of its intention to make the biggest arms sale in American history—an estimated $60.5 billion purchase by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The package represented a considerable improvement in the offensive capability of the Saudi armed forces. The United States emphasized that the arms transfer would increase "interoperability" with U.S. forces. In the
Persian Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
, having U.S.-trained Saudi Arabian forces, along with military installations built to U.S. specifications, allowed the U.S. military to deploy in a comfortable and familiar battle environment. This new deal would increase these capabilities, as an advanced American military infrastructure is about to be built. The U.S. government was also in talks with Saudi Arabia about the potential sale of advanced naval and missile-defense upgrades.
The United Kingdom has also been a major supplier of military equipment to Saudi Arabia since 1965.