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Experts: Saudi Arabia's Sophisticated Defense Vulnerable to Drone Strikes

Dale Gavlak

   AMMAN - The recent attacks on Saudi Arabia's crude oil hub at the
   Abqaiq and Khurais production facilities reveal that even a nation with
   a sophisticated military and a massive defense budget is still
   vulnerable to drone strikes.

   The United States says satellite images and intelligence information
   show Iranian weapons were used in the aerial attacks that have shut
   down half of the kingdom's oil production. Security experts say this
   latest incident sparks growing concern over the rapid evolution of
   technologies expanding drones' offensive capabilities.

   Unidentified U.S. officials have been telling Western media that more
   than a dozen attacks targeted the installations from a west-northwest
   direction and not from the southwest as claimed by Iranian-backed
   Houthi rebels in Yemen who said they carried out the coordinated
   assault.

   In July, the Houthis, who are fighting a Saudi-led coalition war in
   Yemen, showed off their Iranian-made weapons long-range cruise
   missiles, dubbed "Al-Quds", and explosives-laden "Sammad 3" drones that
   reportedly can hit targets as far as 1,500 kilometers away.

   No previous attack, since the Yemen conflict began four years ago,
   however, has interrupted oil supplies. But the assaults have taken 5.7
   million barrels of oil a day off the world's markets. They have also
   exposed the vulnerability of the pumping heart of Saudi Arabia's oil
   industry.

   Defense analysts say the attacks have exposed structural problems in
   the kingdom's defenses. They say the systems -- albeit sophisticated -
   are designed to defend against traditional-style attacks -- and not
   asymmetrical ones from the air by drones.

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