Free Republic

Boeing has received a previously announced contract worth $11.4 billion to supply Saudi Arabia with 84 F-15SA Strike Eagle fighters, the US military announced on 8 March. "This particular undefinitsed contract action covers development efforts for the new aircraft and retrofit as well as procurement of the 84 new production aircraft," the announcement reads. "Work is expected to be completed October 2020." The sale was finalised last December when the Saudis signed a letter of offer and acceptance for a package of 84 new jets, upgrades to 70 older F-15S fighters, and associated weapons systems and sensors. The F-15SA is...

Israel is trying to prevent a big defense contract between the United States and Saudi Arabia from going through, a senior defense source told Haaretz. The deal includes the purchase of scores of new F-15 fighter jets and the upgrading of the 150 F-15s already in the Saudi air force. The source said Israel expressed a number of reservations to the Americans over the past month, and the issue is expected to come up in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meetings in Washington on Tuesday. Defense Minister Ehud Barak raised the deal in meetings with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and...

Goodrich Corp. was selected to provide the Saudi Arabia air force with flight controls upgrades on the fleet of F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft. Goodrich says its California-based Aerostructures unit will deliver its Grid-Lock flight controls surfaces including ailerons, flaps and wingtips among other technologies for integration with the Saudi F-15s. The Saudi Arabian air force selected Goodrich following the company's success F-15 retrofit with aircraft in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. "The Saudi Arabian air force recognized the improved life-cycle costs that the U.S. Air Force is realizing on its flight control surfaces as a result of...

Saudi Arabian troops and aircraft are now enforcing a ten kilometer deep "kill zone" on the Yemen side of their Yemen border. This is the first combat operation for Saudi forces since 1991 (during the liberation of Kuwait.) This is in support of a four month war between rebel Shia tribesmen and the Yemeni armed forces. Since November 5th, Saudi fighter bombers have flown over a hundred sorties against rebel targets just across the border. Hundreds of smart bombs and missiles have been used. Saudi artillery has fired hundreds of shells at the rebels, and Saudi helicopters and infantry now...

Saudi Arabia said on Friday that it had launched air strikes against Yemeni rebels to "neutralise" infiltrators who had crossed the frontier and killed a Saudi border guard. The air strikes from southern Jizan province were to "neutralise the firing by intruders" and to clear areas where they had encroached on Saudi territory, the government said in a statement on the official SPA news agency. Earlier, a government advisor said Saudi F-15 and Tornado jets had begun bombing the positions of the Zaidi rebels inside Yemeni territory on Wednesday in response to a rebel attack on a border post a...