In addition to Saudi Arabia, the seven countries of Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Greece, Britain, and the US are participating in these exercises, and the UAE, Kuwait, and Oman are also participating as observer countries. Khalid al-Harbi, commander of the Saudi Air Operations Center, stated that these drills will help strengthen military relations among the participating forces of friendly countries and exchange experiences in the field of planning and implementation in all fields, and also will unify the concepts of joint air operations and measure the level of readiness and joint actions at tactical levels. The Saudi ministry of defense announced that the purpose is to improve the level of performance and combat readiness of the participating units by conducting joint operations simulating existing and potential threats in a multi-dimension operational environment. In February last year, Saudi Arabia held these exercises with the participation of forces from the US, Bahrain, and Pakistan.
At the same time, media sources announced the start of the joint exercise of the UAE and Oman, dubbed Cooperation 3. This exercises are being held in the framework of joint cooperation and for strengthening the military capabilities of the participants at the combat training center in Al Hamra camp in Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, Kuwait is holding a joint exercise with the British army, and the military forces of the two countries will simulate attack operations and urban warfare.
These drills with the US and Britain are meant to boost military capabilities of the Arab sheikhdoms, but since they are conducted under the American command, they essentially cannot, experts suggest, bring security to these countries.
Last year, Washington put two security plans on the agenda, including formation of an Israeli-Arab alliance and deployment of a fleet of drones and unmanned vessels in the Persian Gulf with the aim of countering Iran’s missile and drone power, but no action was taken in practice, and that is why by participating in such exercises, the Americans are trying to reassure their allies.
Although Saudi Arabia and other sheikdoms have always failed in their military plans, they still insist on painting themselves as powerful and thinking that the more exercises they hold, the more their defense power will be bolstered.
Yemen, a failed test of Saudi air power
Other than the underway drills, the Arab kingdom held drills with Greece over the past two years to demonstrate that it has much to say in air power, but its record in eight-year Yemen war proves the opposite.
Involvement in a war against such a poor country as Yemen represented a big test showing the scale of the military power of Saudi Arabia and coalition countries that waged a cruel war with the illusion of scoring a quick victory but made no gains in opposition to their expectations.
Though at the beginning of war Saudi fighter jets managed to destroy some of Yemen’s air defense power, military facilities, and ammunition warehouses because Yemenis were unprepared for the war, as the time went by, the aggression airstrikes focused on civilians, schools, and residential areas, demonstrating the inefficiency of the Saudi-led coalition’s air force. In modern wars, the air force is used as a support force to facilitate advances of the ground forces, but the Saudi fighters were unsuccessful in hitting Yemeni military targets and supporting their mercenaries on the field, and with blind attacks, they tried to raise the costs of Yemen to force Ansarullah Movement to surrender, but this plan met its failure.
Despite the fact that Ansarullah did not have powerful air defenses and advanced radars to engage the Saudi warplanes, tens of Saudi aircraft including fighter jets, helicopters, and drones were shot down in Yemen. An air force cannot operate successfully as long as it does not have a target bank, and that was the case of the Saudi aircraft whose only action was flying in the Yemeni skies and conducting indiscriminate bombing. Despite the huge arsenal of Saudi Arabia, Ansarullah’s attacks on the facilities of the Saudi oil giant Aramco gave away the weakness of the Saudi military structure.
Although Saudi air force is equipped with 848 military aircraft, including 244 fighters, and has the full support of the West, it is still unsuccessful in its campaign. In the past eight years, Saudi Arabia and its allies have used all their military tools, including air, sea and ground forces, to implement their plans in Yemen by eliminating Ansarullah, but the only thing they have gained is exorbitant cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and insecurity of their soil that forced the aggression coalition to accept Ansarullah’s conditions, and therefore holding this kind of exercises will change nothing.
Air force used to cover up navy and army weaknesses
Maneuvering with the air power comes as the Saudi military is considerably weak in ground power and its forces cannot manage the ground battles, a problem stemming from shortage of training, experience, and tactical skills. That is why they rely on proxy forces and mercenaries from other countries to protect their security. Yemen is one example of being a setting of mercenary forces recruited from Sudan and other Muslim countries. Saudi Arabia was aware of weakness of its forces and thus did not deploy more of its forces to Yemen battlegrounds as it feared higher casualties caused by their inexperience in ground battles.
In a hearing session hosted by the US Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2019, the time’s US intelligence chief Lieutenant General James Clapper commented on the deployment of Saudi and Emirati forces to Syria for so-called fight against ISIS terrorist group, saying that given their weak performance on Yemen battlegrounds, there should be no more expectations from these forces. In other words, the American official said that the Saudi army cannot be trusted for victory on the battleground.
Saudi Arabia has not much to say in naval power either, and this has been clear in Yemen war. Despite imposing a massive sea blockade using destroyers and other naval vessels, Riyadh made no gains and the Yemenis dealt heavy blows to the Saudis. The Persian Gulf sheikhdoms spend billions of dollars annually on the arms and try to pretend that these are not waste of money and they have managed to, at least, build a successful navy.
Show-off of power to save face
By holding these military drills, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf monarchies are seeking to cover up their losses in the region. Drills are mainly aimed at uplifting the defense capabilities of the forces, but this is not true about the Arab leaders and their main purpose is to save their face to reassure the public opinion that they can trust their armed forces for security guarantees should a war break out.
The Persian Gulf Arab states hold air exercises with the aim of increasing their defense capabilities against Iran and resistance groups, but the Saudi coalition, with all the weapons and expenses, failed to make gains against Ansarullah, which the Saudis consider one of Iran’s proxy groups in the region, and against the Iran-led Axis of Resistance, which the West admits outpowers even some of European countries, it has no chance of victory.
The Arab countries, relying on the US, Britain, and
recently Israeli regime for their security for decades, have never
focused on domestic capabilities for defense power, and provide their
military with arms from the West thanks to their petrodollars. Even
command and control of the air defense systems is held by the Americans
and the Saudis just stand and watch. Hosting the US Fifth Fleet on the
Bahraini coasts and thousands of Marines in the Persian Gulf for
protection of these sheikhdoms is indicative of the reality that every
defense affair of Arab monarchies is under the US control and with the
American withdrawal from the region, they will be like an orphaned
child.
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