Royal Saudi Air Defense


The Saudi Arabian Air Defense Forces or officially Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces is the aerial defense service branch of the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces. It is fourth of the five service branches of the MOD. It has its HQ in Riyadh, where there is also an elaborate underground command facility that co-ordinates Arabian Kingdom's advanced "Peace Shield" radar and air defense system, with an estimated 40,000 active duty military personnel in 2015. Along with the Royal Saudi Air Force, it has responsibility for securing the skies of Saudi Arabia.

Overview

Towards the end of the 1970s, a paradigm shift occurred with the SAAF with the making of the RSAD Corps as a separate and equivalent service, equal to the Army, Navy, and Air Forces. It is no longer subordinate to the RSLF. The impetus behind this shift is the ever-changing threat. The concern by the Kingdom of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their mechanism of delivery, resulted in the early understanding by the MoD of the requirement to transform, and thus the creation of the RSADF.

Peace Shield

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