This must be the naval component of the deal.
Saudi Arabia was unable to help even if it wanted to because their armed forces weren't well developed back then so they helped the only way they could. But now Saudi has a well developed army for self-defense and an air force capable of both defense and offensive operations against any air force in the region including Israel's. The Typhoon sale will only augment the RSAF's offensive capabilities even if Israel buys large amounts of F-35. I'm not saying that any Arab/Muslim nation that goes against Israel won't lose within the first few days (one week max). The IAF is by far more powerful than a coalition of Arab states will remain that way for quite a while.so they didn't help.
No wonder Israel is OK with this sale.nfloorl:
Iam sorry which part of what i said was flamable.if the point could be made with less words.there is no need to go on and on about it.
There is no "encirclement" of anybody. The Gulf countries aren't about to stage an offensive on Iran even if in a coalition with US and or the UK unless Iran attacks and Arab country or make a clear threat to any Gulf state, which it has no reason to do seeing the state of it's armed forces. Israel and Egypt are too far from Iran to do anything about it (plus Egypt wouldn't stage an offensive on Iran). The Arab arms deals are for self-defense (both against Israel and Iran) and the Israeli deal is for offensive purposes (against everybody but still a little too far from Iran).
I really don't see what the Saudis are spending all their money on. SA is going to spend $250 billion dollars over the next decade (none of which is aid by the way) and Israel is spending $75 billion dollars over the next decade ($30 billion of which is aid). Yet, everybody says that Israel has a quality advantage over SA (and I agree). Maybe if SA looks for Russian/European (excluding the UK) equipment, where they don't put much restrictions, they would have better luck having a qualitative advantage.
The proposed arms sale to the Saudis and rest of the GCC is aimed directly at Iran only. The goal is to get Iran into an arms race which will put a strain on its economy and create internal problems for the regime. How successful will it be, remains to be seen.
Thank goodness. radiosilence has hit the point straight on the head.
That's not true in the mid to late 70's Iran was well ahead of any Middle East country in terms of arms. It had 80 F-14A's and 300 F-16A/B's on order. It was going to be the strongest ME country well ahead of Israel and Saudi.
That's a very good point but I don't think the States will it get to that point. It will probably strike Iran well before that ever happens. And is the US trying to spark an ME arms race really that surprising? The US never did anything that had a positive impact on the ME (excluding Israel). They're making the Arabs (and Iran) delusional and insecure and it's arming and supporting the only nuclear weapons proliferater in the Middle East. It seems to me that the US is the only "destabilizing force" in the ME. If the US wasn't so war loving and the Israel didn't have nukes Iran would probably not seek such weapons.
A valid point eaf-f16, I should correct myself - the Iranian Islamic Republic has avoided getting embroiled in the regional arms race.
Wow, Iran had some pretty lavish defense spending back then. It's a shame there was coup. It's true that the Islamic Republic of Iran never entered an arms race with Saudi or Israel and if they entered one they would lose.