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The limited success of their war on Yemen, despite having the 3rd largest military budget in the world, says otherwise.

by fmajid 7y ago

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
So you're saying KSA has a higher military budget than 1) The US, 2) China, or 3) Russia?
- pixl97 7y ago
  1 No. 2 No. 3 Yes. The KSA spends 8.8% of its GDP on military expenditure. Seemingly the largest of any country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_...
  - TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
    But KSA has no ambitions towards becoming a global military superpower. For a long time it had a choke point on the economy through its resource monopoly. Until recently that was a much more potent weapon than any number of aircraft carriers. Russia does have superpower ambitions, which is a rather more expensive business. My cynical suspicion is that much of the KSA military budget is really just a form of kickback - or possibly protection money, depending how you look at it - to the US mil-ind establishment. While the Saudis are some of the worst people in the world, their ambitions are limited to keeping the ruling dynasty outrageously rich and maintaining power on their own patch of turf. The Russian establishment is far more dangerous. It not only has links to organised crime, it also has a complement of nukes, bio, and chem weapons. And it has a very developed infowar, hacking, and social destabilisation arm, based on techniques pioneered by the US, with some home-grown twists to increase effectiveness. This oil war and related COVID crash are going to do huge damage to the economies of both countries - and a lot of others besides - with increased prospects for instability everywhere.
    - hermitdev 7y ago
      It's my understanding that KSA largely buys its military equipment from the US (certainly in regard to Army equipment and its air force). I'm pretty sure they're one of the countries approved for F-35 export, and they're known to be F-16 and F-15 customers. The F-35 is not cheap, the other two are relatively cheap (still in the millions). I don't think anyone is expecting KSA to declare war against Russia, but they're currently at war w/ (part of) Yemen, and they're not exactly happy with Iran, either. The middle east is set to explode, even without US involvement.
- rfurmani 7y ago
  3) Russia. Look it up.
protomyth 7y ago
Isn't there some real issues with the military being larger given the ruling family? Fear of a coup? I though they spent the money on fancy toys and not a big military.

The limited success of their war on Yemen, despite having the 3rd largest military budget in the world, says otherwise.

by fmajid 7y ago

The limited success of their war on Yemen, despite having the 3rd largest military budget in the world, says otherwise.

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago

So you're saying KSA has a higher military budget than 1) The US, 2) China, or 3) Russia?

pixl97 7y ago
1 No. 2 No. 3 Yes. The KSA spends 8.8% of its GDP on military expenditure. Seemingly the largest of any country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_...
- TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
  But KSA has no ambitions towards becoming a global military superpower. For a long time it had a choke point on the economy through its resource monopoly. Until recently that was a much more potent weapon than any number of aircraft carriers. Russia does have superpower ambitions, which is a rather more expensive business. My cynical suspicion is that much of the KSA military budget is really just a form of kickback - or possibly protection money, depending how you look at it - to the US mil-ind establishment. While the Saudis are some of the worst people in the world, their ambitions are limited to keeping the ruling dynasty outrageously rich and maintaining power on their own patch of turf. The Russian establishment is far more dangerous. It not only has links to organised crime, it also has a complement of nukes, bio, and chem weapons. And it has a very developed infowar, hacking, and social destabilisation arm, based on techniques pioneered by the US, with some home-grown twists to increase effectiveness. This oil war and related COVID crash are going to do huge damage to the economies of both countries - and a lot of others besides - with increased prospects for instability everywhere.
  - hermitdev 7y ago
    It's my understanding that KSA largely buys its military equipment from the US (certainly in regard to Army equipment and its air force). I'm pretty sure they're one of the countries approved for F-35 export, and they're known to be F-16 and F-15 customers. The F-35 is not cheap, the other two are relatively cheap (still in the millions). I don't think anyone is expecting KSA to declare war against Russia, but they're currently at war w/ (part of) Yemen, and they're not exactly happy with Iran, either. The middle east is set to explode, even without US involvement.
rfurmani 7y ago
3) Russia. Look it up.

protomyth 7y ago

Isn't there some real issues with the military being larger given the ruling family? Fear of a coup? I though they spent the money on fancy toys and not a big military.