Posted on Jun 6, 2015
What are the potential impacts of Saudi Arabia shooting down a scud on our overall national defense posture?
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32nd AAMDC
Foreign Forces
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 11
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Seeing how they are using the missile defense system for what it's used for, I don't think that is what we should be focusing on. The bigger concern is the fact that acids are once again flying in a region we are supposed to have air superiority in. If there is a return to more long range weapons like this, we have to look at the implications it has for the AMD units we already have in the region and exactly how safe they are if missile start flying in from both directions. All it takes is one miscalculation before a scud aimed at Saudi is hitting UAE or Kuwait. This may cause our current standing units to shift and restart the process of setting up site to posture towards much more active threats. It's going to cause a lot of problems down the road if this kind of activities continue.
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LTC (Join to see)
SPC Flores, interesting take. From the standpoint of an additional threat, I see your point. I was thinking more in terms of the potential benefits of the Saudis finally demonstrating a capability to defend themselves, but your observation is spot on. This new threat source will cause a potential shift or additional requirements. Something these particular systems were not designed for- address >180 degree threat picture... it seems that in at least two theaters this is a growing requirement.
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LTC (Join to see)
Trey, true enough... but they've had it for quite a while now. I think it's a positive step to see them actually push the button, and more importantly to see a successful engagement come out of it. We've sold a lot of systems to a lot of countries.... There are a number of countries that have Patriot that would not get this result if they pushed the button...
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LTC (Join to see)
Sir, I agree with you, but at the end of the day if we ever want to extract ourselves as the strategic woobie for the GCC countries then we need them to do for themselves when the time comes. I believe this is something that we should be trumpting to the other GCC nations that we have FMS Patriot or THAAD sales with.
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This was a big concern or question when I was stationed in Saudi back in 02. The concern was would the Saudi ADA units be prepared and properly trained to act upon a possible TBM threat. For so many years Patriot ADA units have and still do provide the first line of ADA coverage in countries such as Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain and in my opinion, I always felt that we were doing these countries a dis-service because they weren't being held accountable to protect their own skies and assests. Maybe, things have changed.
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