Friends and the Saudi neighbours

The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) is better able to support neighbouring GCC states and to operate with USCENTCOM forces in any major crisis than the kingdom’s other armed forces, and it is the only service that can cover Saudi Arabia’s 2.3 million square kilometres of territory and airspace.

The modernisation and expansion of the RSAF has, therefore, been accorded a higher priority than that of the Army, Navy, and Air Defence Force.

After some retrenchment in the mid 1990s, resulting in reduced readiness and training standards and a rising accident rate, the RSAF is placing great emphasis on improving standards, and on training as well as on ambitious ‘Saudisation’ plans.

In the short term, this has led to a continuing reliance on foreign assistance and training, though the kingdom has aspirations for greater autonomy and self-reliance.

But, however sincere these aspirations, the kingdom has a long tradition of reliance on foreign advisers, instructors and other personnel.

When the RSAF acquired English Electric Lightnings and Hawker Hunters, these were initially flown by UK contract pilots provided by Airwork, and subsequently by pilots seconded from the Pakistani Air Force.

Pakistan has provided military aid and expertise to Saudi Arabia for decades, including pilots and combat troops. In the 1970s and 80s, up to 15,000 Pakistani troops were stationed in the kingdom; some in a brigade combat force near the Israeli-Jordanian-Saudi border. The USA and UK have also provided considerable assistance and support for many years.

The RSAF has taken justifiable pride in conducting its own flying training ‘in-kingdom’, but has always relied heavily on the use of foreign QFIs and ground school instructors. In recent years, the Air Force has also sent increasing numbers of pilots and other personnel overseas for training.

Thus, while nine members of the Royal Saudi Air Force trained in various US Air Force programmes in 2005, the number grew to 161 in 2008.

The importance of this relationship was underlined in March 2009, when Prince Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Abd al-Rahman, the Governor of Riyadh, attended the graduation ceremony of Specialised Undergraduate Pilot Training Class 09-06 at the 14th Flying Training Wing, at Columbus AFB, Mississippi. The three RSAF Lieutenants graduating in the class of 26 pilots included the prince’s son.

The modernisation of the RSAF has, if anything, led to a growing reliance on foreign assistance, as more sophisticated new aircraft, demanding greater support, have entered service.

Saudi Arabia failed to recruit and train sufficient personnel to underpin the modernisation of the 1990s and early Saudisation efforts, coupled with a failure to impose high training and proficiency standards, exacerbated the situation. Accordingly, the RSAF has found it hard to attain the internationally accepted average crews/aircraft ratio of 1.5:1, let alone the 1.8:1 ratio that its own operational experience indicated was required to maximise sortie rates and combat efficiency.

In 2002 it was estimated that Saudi Arabia had only 0.9 aircrews and 0.5 ground crews per aircraft, equivalent to between one-third and two-thirds of the numbers needed to sustain intense, 24-hour operations in the face of a major threat. It was estimated that its pilots were flying an average of 3.5-5 hours per month – far below the then-NATO standard of 20 hours.

Saudi Arabia, therefore, needed foreign pilots to man some of its aircraft, just to beef up force structure. US pilots have been attached to the F-15 squadrons for many years, while the Saudi Tornado squadrons have placed similar reliance on British pilots and navigators, and on augmenting RSAF engineers and ground crew with contractor-provided foreign maintenance personnel.

In the case of the RSAF’s E-3A Sentry AWACS aircraft, it soon became clear that the RSAF’s buy of five aircraft was sufficient to sustain two orbits, round-the-clock. However, maintaining a full air defence and air control and warning screen against a Northern Gulf state like Iraq or Iran might require up to four simultaneous orbits by AWACS. This has forced the RSAF to rely on operating jointly with USAF AWACS aircraft, and the degree of co-operation necessary has required assistance and training from the USAF.

BAE Systems and its predecessors (BAC and BAe) have been at the forefront of contractor support for the RSAF since 1973. The company’s presence in Saudi Arabia is such that the kingdom is one of six nations described by BAE Systems as ‘home markets’ (alongside Australia, South Africa, Sweden, the UK and the United States). BAE Systems is one of the largest companies in the Saudi industrial sector, currently employing 4,600 people, including 2,450 local Saudis, and the company is committed to the training of local nationals to bring them into more management, technical and other qualified positions.

BAE Systems has established a technical training academy at Warton and has a programme that will produce Tornado aircraft technicians for RSAF, helping it move towards the multi-skilled ethos embraced by the UK RAF, in place of its single-skill trades.

Trainees begin with a course at the RSAF’s Technical Studies Institute in Dhahran, followed by six months of English language training. They then undertake an intensive year at the RAF’s Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering at Cosford, learning basic aircraft skills in line with their respective trades, before moving on to Warton for a mixture of classroom-based theory training and, importantly, specific on-the-job training.

They emerge with broad skills in one of four trades – airframe, propulsion, avionics, or electrical, and are posted to an RSAF Tornado squadron, where they are mentored by an experienced multi-skilled BAE Systems technician trainer.

While the RSAF has made efforts to reduce its reliance on the UK in the operation of its Tornado fleet, in the case of the F-15S, Saudi Arabia has quite deliberately accepted a reliance on US technicians and technical support to keep the aircraft operating. This has been accepted as the price of receiving an aircraft, which might otherwise have been withheld – reliance on US support reassuring the Americans that the aircraft could not be used against them (or their allies) in the event of some unforeseen coup, and defusing any Israeli objections to the sale.

Initially supplied with a limited number of conformal fuel tanks and some downgraded avionics, upgrades to Saudi Arabia’s F-15S aircraft from 1998 brought them closer to the USAF’s F-15E standard, and led to a need for more mutual training to maximise interoperability and co-operation. This has seen the RSAF deploy F-15S aircraft to the USA for exercises, and USAF personnel from the United States Military Training Mission Air Force Division serve with the Saudi F-15S squadrons, passing on their expertise.

The RSAF made its first appearance at the USAF’s ‘Red Flag’ exercise decades ago, participating in Red Flag 81-1 in November 1980 using borrowed USAF F-5Es and F-5Fs, temporarily painted with RSAF insignia.

More recently, RSAF F-15S Strike Eagles participated in a Red Flag exercise in August 2005, and they deployed again in February 2008 to participate in Red Flag 08-3, aiming to raise the standards and improve their ability to interact and interoperate with allied forces. The importance of the exercise was underlined by the attendance of Prince Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the Assistant Minister of Defence and Aviation for Military Affairs.

A further deployment took place in 2010, led by Wing Commander Prince Turki Bin Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz. The F-15S crews, with five attached US advisers, undertook a dedicated low-altitude training exercise above Utah, Arizona and California before participating in the Red Flag 10-4 and Green Flag 10-9 training exercises.

While the RSAF’s relationship with the USAF is particularly important, the force has also undertaken similar exercises in the UK and in France. During 2006, the RAF’s Dambusters (No.617 Squadron) deployed to Saudi Arabia to take part in Exercise Loan Frame, and eight Tornado IDS aircraft from No.75 Squadron at Dhahran paid a reciprocal visit to RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland from August 22 2007, staging via Trapani Air Base in Sicily and RAF Marham in Norfolk, supported by two RSAF C-130H Hercules transports, KE-3 tankers and E-3A AWACS aircraft.

The Saudi Tornados flew some 65 sorties during what was dubbed ‘Exercise Saudi Green Flag ‘07’, and they made use of the electronic warfare range at Spadeadam and of the Tain and Wiley Sike Air Weapon Ranges. No3 Squadron’s Typhoons provided ‘opposition’.

In October 2009, the RSAF deployed five F-15Cs and a single F-15D of No5 Squadron from Taif (together with some 175 personnel) to Base Aérienne 102 Dijon-Longvic in France to participate in Exercise ‘Green Shield 2’. The exercise built on a previous Franco-Saudi joint exercise in 2007, when the French Air Force deployed to Saudi Arabia.

During Green Shield 2, the RSAF F-15s operated alongside the Mirage 2000s of Escadron de Chasse 01.002 ‘Cigognes’ and the Alpha Jets of Escadron d'Entraînement 02.002, with Dassault Rafales of EC 01.007 ‘Provence’ based at Saint-Dizier flying as the ‘enemy’.

Two missions were planned every day (one in the morning and afternoon), with a variety of scenarios. Eurocopter EC 725 Caracal helicopters acted as CSAR assets during the exercise, while AWACS support was provided by Armée de l’Air Boeing E-3Fs.