By COLIN CLARK
That rumble under your feet you sensed this morning was the earthquake caused by the decision of one of America’s closest allies, Saudis Arabia, to join Turkey in buying Russia’s vaunted S-400 surface to air missile system.
The announcement carried extra diplomatic weight as Saudi King Salman was visiting Russia when the Saudis made the announcement.
Former NATO and European Command leader, retired Adm. James Stavridis, called the sale “a step backwards in US foreign and defense policy.” Since World War II, when President Roosevelt agreed with King Faisal that we would guarantee Saudi sovereignty in return for access to their oil, the kingdom has been one of our closest allies, notwithstanding the 911 attacks led by Saudi citizens.
“While the enormous global arms market is a free trade zone, it is disconcerting to see close US Allies like Turkey and Saudi Arabia buying significant systems like the S-400 air defense from Russia,” Stavridis, now the dean of the Fletcher School of law and Diplomacy, writes in an email. “It decreases interoperability, opens up cyber vulnerabilities, exposes additional real intelligence to Russia, and reduces the tendency of the US to truly open its technology transfer process to partners.”
While Stavridis, long known as a warrior-diplomat, does not say it explicitly, his comment about tech transfer is seminal. Should Saudi Arabia proceed with this sale, it may lead to the United States deciding not to sell advanced command and control systems or aircraft to them. Why? Fear that the Russians could get access to highly classified data about our systems’ vulnerabilities.
One of America’s top experts on arms sales was surprised by the Saudi’s announcement, as he suspects was the US government. “This is especially surprising given Trump’s announcement during his Saudi visit that his administration approved a very large package of defense systems for Saudi Arabia. That suggests USG officials knew nothing about the Saudi S-400 decision,” writes Frank Cevasco, former longtime head of international affairs at the Pentagon and a veteran consultant to American and foreign companies on arms sales.
https://breakingdefense.com/2017/10/saudis-rock-us-alliance-say-theyll-buy-russias-top-plane-killer-s-400/
