Surface Forces: August 7, 2005

Archives

The last two years have been a troubled time for the Saudi Arabian navy, with accident rates going up, and readiness levels going down. One of the main reasons for this was the withdrawal of American trainers two years ago. This was the result of an American civilian contractor being shot dead by an Islamic terrorist, who was also a Saudi sailor. The killing took place in the Saudi naval base of Jubail. The United States, not satisfied with Saudi security arrangements for the American trainers, shut down the training program. Since then, the Saudis have beefed up their security sufficiently to enable the U.S. to restore the training program. The current training contract runs through the end of the decade.

X

ad

On July 24th we will have been at it for 26 years.

But we need your help to keep going! The summer months are our lowest revenue months. And we need your support.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close