Trump recently signed a 380 billion dollar arms deals with Saudi Arabia the first 110 billion of which will be used immediately the rest spread out over the next 10 years
to understand why Saudi Arabia is so eager to sign this deal we need to understand the geopolitics of the region there are two major military powers in the Middle East Saudi Arabia and Iran, the two nations have engaged in a series of proxy wars similar to what the US and Soviet Union did during the Cold War these conflicts are currently taking place in Syria Iraq and most of all in Yemen where the Saudis backed the heidy government and Iran back in the Houthi rebels so what are the Saudis getting for their money
one of the major items included in the deal is the Thaad missile system, Thaad is an advanced missile-defense weapon used to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles from up to 200 kilometers out, with Iran's long history of ballistic missile test and development the Saudis are interested in the system to counter the threat, also included is the Patriot Pac-3 missile defense system the newer version of the Patriot designed specifically to shoot down shorter range to ballistic missiles,
the Saudis are also purchasing almost 200 M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams, abrams is a third generation main battle tank designed of the US Army, Saudi Arabia has reportedly lost over a dozen of its tanks in the yemeni conflict which these newer abrams will replace,
in a possible conflict with Iran the Abrams toughest opponent is the new Iranian Karrar main battle tank while Iran has stated that the Karrar is superior to all other tanks it is highly unlikely Iran has a long history of greatly exaggerating its military strength like the photoshopped pictures released of ballistic missile launches and their so-called fifth-generation stealth fighter jet
the Saudis will also be purchasing several new Naval frigates these frigates will be based on the freedom class littoral combat ships these vessels are designed to operate in shallow waters close to shore it can be assumed that Saudi Arabia could operate these ships in the Persian Gulf which separates Saudi Arabia from Iran
Saudi Arabia is also getting about 50 CH-47 Chinook helicopters the Chinook can carry over thirty troops into combat and also transport heavy cargo like artillery and supplies to the frontline despite its large size is also extremely fast with the top speed of almost 200 miles an hour it is faster than the American Apache attack helicopter, while Saudi Arabia is making this large purchase it is not expected to further increase the possibilities of work between the two nations
