TATV Defence Monthly: Saudi Arabia

With Saudi Arabia offering proposals for peace in Yemen we talk about the challenges the Kingdom and its allies have faced with home-made or unsophisticated weapons as well as the more sophisticated missiles. Just how do you train against drones just 30-feet above a highway travelling at the speed of a fast truck and heading towards an oil refinery or another vital installation.

We hear from Tim Allen the CEO of Houbara, a joint venture company in Abu Dhabi that is bringing its QinetiQ heritage into the battle to help ensure troops are familiar with this footprint.

The UAE and India have been exercising together with Desert Flag showing a greater coming together between the two nations. Jay Menon explores the value of the relationship and how it is changing the political scene in the region.

Another thing changing is the approach to offsets. One of the leading figures in Offsets Dr Kogila Balakrishnan, from Warwick University, former Under Secretary of the Defence Industry Division at Malaysia’s Ministry of Defence, and author of the leading book on defence procurement talks to Chuck Grieve about the changing role for offsets particularly in line with the industrialisation strategies in the emerging markets.

Defence editor Jon Lake looks at the successful first firing of Storm Shadow by UK’s RAF in a mission against Daesh in Iraq and how this proves the missile for Gulf customers.

Our defence industry specialists look at these and other industry highlights including Paramount in South Africa, Israel and UAE on UAV development and CAE and L3Harris ‘mega deal’ for military training.

This TATV programme is brought to you with the support of the World Defense Show.

Jay Menon

Jay is currently based in Bengaluru and has been writing writing on defence and aerospace for the past 10 years.

Jon Lake

Jon Lake

Jon is defence editor for both Arabian and African Aerospace magazines.