Saudi Arabia has spent hundreds of billions of dollars building one of the Middle East's most formidable military arsenals, filled with American weapons from Patriot missiles to F-15 fighter planes. But day after day this month, Houthi attacks have struck targets deep inside the kingdom, including Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, and exposed the limits of this spending in brutal fashion.
On Tuesday, Houthi rebels appeared to strike the Dhahran headquarters of Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil company. Though the kingdom defended itself against barrages of Iranian missiles earlier in the war, analysts and people familiar with the Saudi military said it had struggled to adapt to rapid changes in the Houthis' tactics and technology. The strain on regional interceptor stocks following months of Iranian bombardment had also complicated the kingdom's ability to defend its large territory.
Bilal Y Saab, senior managing director of the Trends US consultancy in Washington, said there is no such thing as perfect defence. "Airports, not just energy installations, should be part of the list of must-protect critical infrastructure," he said. He added that the problem was first and foremost about Houthi tactics and the failure of missile defence coordination on the Saudi side.
The kingdom allocated the equivalent of 6.5 per cent of GDP to military spending last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, one of the highest proportions in the world. That figure was as high as 13 per cent in 2015, the year Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a military coalition to support the Yemeni government against the Iran-backed Houthis. The truce with the Houthis held at first, but after Riyadh struck a runway at Sana'a airport in July, the rebels announced a blockade of Saudi ships and intensified bombardment of Saudi energy sites.
Saturday's strike on Riyadh's King Khalid airport killed 13 and injured 300 in the deadliest such attack in almost a decade.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing