How Saudi Arabia failed to protect itself from drone and missile attacks

[Mosby]

Key Points:

Saudi Arabia in 2018 spent an estimated $67.6 billion on arms — second only to the U.S. and China.

Saturday’s attacks on Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq and Khurais facilities cut off roughly half the kingdom’s oil production in one day.

The low-flying drones and cruise missiles said to have been used in the strikes are a new challenge for Saudi defenses.

....

Quite simply, the kingdom’s defenses — no matter how high-tech — are designed for entirely different kinds of threats. The low-flying and relatively cheap drones and cruise missiles purported to have been used in Saturday’s attack are a fairly new challenge that many nation states are not in fact prepared to counter.

....
To add to the Saudis’ weapon woes, their military personnel may not be up to the task either, according to Watling and several other experts who spoke to CNBC anonymously.

“The Saudis have a lot of sophisticated air defense equipment. Given their general conduct of operations in Yemen, it is highly unlikely that their soldiers know how to use it,” Watling said. He added that the kingdom’s forces have “low readiness, low competence, and are largely inattentive.”


https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/19/how-saudi-arabia-failed-to-protect-itself-from-drones-missile-attacks.html

[Sneederbunk]

1. Yet they were able to keep all refinery workers out of harms way.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Last paragraf tells the real story.

[soryang]

3. low altitude ingress and small radar cross section are a challenge...

...for any defensive system to detect and intercept.

So now the US will send "defensive forces."

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will deploy U.S. forces to the Middle East on the heels of the Iranian attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced Friday.

“The president has approved the deployment of U.S. forces which will be defensive in nature and primarily focused on air and missile defense,” Esper said, adding that Saudi Arabia requested the support.

Pentagon will deploy US forces to the Middle East after Saudi Arabian oil facilities
PUBLISHED 23 MIN AGO UPDATED MOMENTS AGO

Amanda Macias

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/20/the-pentagon-will-deploy-us-forces-to-the-middle-east-on-the-heels-of-the-iranian-attack-on-saudi-arabian-oil-facilities.html