The excited commentary following the news that Saudi ruler Mohammed Bone Saw is to be allowed to buy an unspecified number of F-35s has been a textbook example of cognitive dissidence in action. Everyone should know the plane is a total dog: vastly over budget, years late, frequently inoperable due to maintenance issues, grossly deficient in exercising some of its designated missions and, overall, incapable of fulfilling its original design requirements. So why then has there been so much excitement over Saudi Arabia acquiring “America’s most advanced fighter jet” and thereby supposedly nullifying Israel’s “qualitative edge” in the mid-east military equation? Part of the answer lies in simple hype. Reporters and editors are habitually loath to challenge technological assertions by the arms industry, most especially when they come with an Israeli endorsement. “Israel has dominated battlefields across the Middle East for the past two years, largely from the air,” the Wall Street Journal reported breathlessly in the wake of the announcement. “It has yet to lose a single plane. A major reason is the F-35.” No High Tech Needed to Bomb Gaza It is certainly true that the Israelis have bombed at will around the neighborhood in recent years and escaped unscathed. But they have been doing this for decades, long before anyone thought of the F-35. Reducing Gaza to rubble, in which the F-35 played a leading part, hardly required any kind of “qualitative edge” since the task could have been equally well accomplished with World War 1 biplane bombers. It might be that the September attack on Qatar using F-35s was a tribute to the plane’s alleged “stealth” invisibility to radar. But the raid consisted of a mixed force of F-35s and non-stealthy F-15s, so that argument hardly holds water. In any case the planes reportedly launched their missiles while over the Red Sea, far away from the target territory. The Israeli F-35s have also been used to bomb Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran, but none of these countries possess much in the way of capable air defense systems. Furthermore, it is not clear from where the attacks were actually launched, which in the case of Lebanon and Yemen was almost certainly well off-shore over the Mediterranean or Red Sea. (For what it’s worth, the Iranians claimed to have shot down as many as three F-35s during the June war, though without producing any evidence.) Notably, Israeli F-35s avoided much of Syria while the Russians still had their formidable air defense system in place there. Saudis Can’t Fly Without U.S. Help Even were Saudi F-35s a theoretical threat to Israel’s regional air superiority, there is little chance that threat could become practical. The Saudi air force has always depended on U.S. support to keep flying. Its years-long bombing campaign against Yemen was enabled by U.S. Air Force refueling tankers, while a extensive force of maintenance contractors recruited in the U.S. is needed to keep its planes in working condition. Given the extreme requirements for maintaining the F-35, the demand for skilled technicians could only increase. “Every time I looked at someone doing something technical on an F-15, it was an American contractor,” Chet Richards, a former Air Force Reserve colonel who served several tours as an air attaché in Riyadh, told me. “These are really, really complex systems. We have trouble keeping them flying in our own air force.” Should the Saudis ever give signs that they plan to use their U.S.-bought systems in a way displeasing to Washington, the force could and would be speedily grounded. If They’re Buying the Abrams Tank, They’re Not Serious About Defense. The surest sign that a Saudi F-35 buy has little to do with defense lies in another arms deal unveiled during the Bone Saw visit: 300 M1 Abrams tanks. Whereas the F-35 can be promoted to the casual observer as successful in combat for reasons discussed above, the Abrams tank has a well advertised record of recent and disastrous failure. Of the thirty-one tanks shipped to Ukraine with much fanfare in September 2023, no less than twenty seven were out of action within a year - the majority falling victim to enemy fire, including drones. The Russians hauled one they had captured off to Moscow and put it on display. The fact that the Saudis are prepared to spend billions on this obsolete system speaks volumes about their true priorities. No Need for Bribes This Time. He’s into Serious Fantasy. Pointless defense spending has long been a Saudi speciality, viz, the purchase of the disastrous Anglo-German Tornado fighter-bomber, so ineptly designed that it could not climb much above 25,000 feet and had a non-functioning radar. But that deal had a rational basis: billions paid in bribes to the relevant officials. (A pending U.K. prosecution was abruptly shut down by Keir Starmer, then chief U.K. prosecutor, when the Saudis threatened to cut off terrorist-related intelligence if he went ahead.) We don’t know if similar pourboires have been on offer in connection with the recent sales (Trump takes a dim view of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as inhibiting to America’s arms salesmen) but in any event the Saudi ruler would need no cash inducement to sign on for a techno-gadget, the more esoteric the better. This is the man, after all, who seriously set about building “Neom”, a “linear city” 110 miles long and 650 feet wide carved through the waterless Saudi desert. A recent Financial Times report on this inane project detailed how the “centrepiece of The Line…was to be the ‘hidden marina’. The world’s largest cruise ships would glide through a gate as tall as London’s Shard over a deepwater harbour carved from the desert. Suspended above it, like a chandelier, a 30-storey glass-and-steel building would hang from the arch, a sci-fi vision dreamed up by a Hollywood art director. Even its designers warned that physics might not cooperate.” For a ruler bent on flushing away his country’s wealth on such fantasies, a bauble such as the F-35 would not cause a moment’s hesitation. For America’s arms dealers, he is the ideal customer. Before you go: Please click that ♡ button. Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy Spoils of War, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. |