Search results

Atlanta-based Meggitt Training Systems has installed and commissioned a new live fire law enforcement range at Mubarrak Al-Kabeer, the first new Police Governorate headquarters. Ten identical installations are planned across Kuwait; Meggitt has already won the contract for the Al-Jahra tactical range, and is also completing the installation of a multiple range complex at the new Police Training Centre.

Eleven alleged Al-Qaeda fighters arrested just north of the Yemeni border in early April were experienced jihadists who carried with them the components for a staggering 35 suicide vests. This raises the alarming prospect that jihadist activity may be poised to burst out again, with this group emerging as the tip of the iceberg as Saudi security forces set to work investigating their ties in the search for a suspected network of safe houses and arms caches.

The cadre of politicians that loosely follow Moqtada Al-Sadr’s leadership did surprisingly well in the provincial elections, given they were largely written off as being politically splintered and militarily humbled after 18 months of pummelling by government forces, operated by their rivals and supported by the United States.

Senior military figures in Pakistan say they are increasingly worried that Middle East conflicts, stoked by the regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, could exacerbate sectarian rifts within Pakistan. Behind the scenes, they have been calling for Pakistani political leaders to do more to try and mediate between Riyadh and Tehran, saying that Pakistan needs to convince Tehran that its efforts to encircle the Gulf Arab countries with Shia-dominated regimes will ultimately prove counter-productive, and to convince Riyadh that its export of radical Wahhabist ideology is similarly problematic.

The UK parliament’s Committee on Arms Export Controls has launched an inquiry into the sale of weapons to the Gulf amid growing public unease about London’s support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. Among other topics the committee will examine is whether UK arms have been used by Saudi forces in Yemen and whether any export licence criteria have been broken.

Saudi Arabia’s Taqnia Aeronautics Company, a subsidiary of Public Investment Fund-owned Taqnia, has signed a deal with Ukraine’s Antonov that will see Taqnia develop a new model of Antonov, based on the Antonov-32. Chairman of Taqnia Prince Turki Bin Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Saud was in Kiev for the signing of the agreement on 6 May. Under the deal, Ukraine will transfer Antonov-32 production technologies to Saudi Arabia, and train specialists.

Reports of progress on US defence deals ahead of King Salman’s early September meeting with President Barack Obama focused on a $1bn-plus sale to the Royal Saudi Navy of two frigates, which are based on a coastal warship that Lockheed Martin Corporation has been building for the US Navy. US sources said the long-mooted Saudi Naval Expansion Programme II had been accelerated by Saudi concerns over Iran. Reuters also reported that other deals with maritime applications included the $1.9bn purchase of ten MH-60R helicopters.

Iraq is looking to buy military equipment from the United States worth around $4.7bn. In a series of notices to Congress between 25 July and 9 August, the Defense Security Co-operation Agency reported the potential sales to Iraq.

The Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) has taken delivery of its first Seahawk MH-60R multi-role helicopters. RSNF commander General Fahd Bin Abdullah Al-Ghufaili attended the inauguration ceremony in New York on 13 September and extolled the aircraft’s surface and sub-surface combat capabilities. The helicopters are built by Lockheed Martin’s subsidiary Sikorsky. Riyadh signed a contract for ten Seahawks in late 2015, at an estimated cost of $1.9bn.

The UAE has been given approval from the US State Department for a large new order of aircraft-mounted bombs. The UAE wants to buy 14,640 bombs, including 500 BLU-109 bombs, 5,940 Mark 82/BLU-111 bombs and 8,200 of the heavier Mark 84/BLU-117 bombs, along with guidance kits and FMU-152 fuses for all of them. The total value of the order is $785m, including support services, according to the Defence Security Cooperation Agency, which announced the approval on 19 July.

Across Iraq the Iraqi Security Forces are less motivated by a need to defeat the remaining cadre of militants. There is a pervasive sense that the security issue is mostly under control and that (in most places) the insurgents are finished and do not

Tehran ran a high-profile, three-day naval exercise in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman with Russia and China in late December, under the title Marine Security Belt. China’s Type 052D Xining guided-missile destroyer took part, along with three vessels from Russia’s Baltic fleet: the Neustrashimyy-class anti-submarine warfare frigate Yaroslav Mudry, a tanker and a tug boat. Both Russia’s Yaroslav Mudry and China’s Xining are relatively modern vessels frequently seen in the region.

Iran has again been agitating over the disputed islands of Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunbs, which lie in the Strait of Hormuz and are also claimed by the UAE. On 4 November, according to Iranian news reports, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) inaugurated a naval base in the city of Bandar Lengeh, in the southern province of Hormozgan, north of the islands.

KAF Apache support deal for DynCorp BAE Systems in Eurofighter Typhoon talks with Oman. Qatar-India defence co-operation

In a further sign of Tehran’s strategy of projecting power further from its borders, Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (Nedaja) commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari has said it plans to cross the Atlantic ocean. “Until ten years ago, Iran’s navy was deployed only in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz but today has increased its mission… Without doubt crossing the Atlantic ocean is on the agenda,” he said, in remarks carried by the Iranian Students’ News Agency.