At the time of Wang Dong's arrival, Crown Prince Mohammed was in a meeting with several high-ranking generals.

Although he is the chief military adviser of the royal family, Wang Dong did not bother himself, after all, on the battlefield in Iraq, his scenery has overshadowed Faisal, and he has enough limelight.

Wang Dong waited outside for more than an hour until the end of the meeting.

When those generals came out, Wang Dong noticed that their faces were not very good-looking, and there were two rear admirals of the navy.

What's the matter with the Navy?

The Royal Air Force and the Royal Army have been in the limelight on the battlefield in Iraq, and the Royal Saudi Navy has been watching from the sidelines, and has not even had the opportunity to play soy sauce.

In addition, the Royal Saudi Navy itself is weak.

Although it is the number one military power in the Gulf region and the leading brother of the Arab League bloc, the navy has not been taken seriously in Saudi Arabia.

Not that the Navy is not important, but that there is no need to develop it.

For a long time, Saudi Arabia had only two main enemies, Israel, which is known as a "mini-superpower", and Shiite countries, led by Iran.

Against Israel, you will definitely not need a navy.

Against Iran, the navy is also of little value.

In a sense, the navy is more like a "yacht fleet" for the royal family.

While spending huge sums of money to purchase the world's most advanced fighter jets for the Air Force and the best main battle tanks for the Army, Saudi Arabia has extremely limited investment in the Navy, and its main warships are several frigates imported from France more than ten years ago, and there are no submarines to this day.

In fact, whether it is the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea, the stage provided for the Navy is too small.

The too narrow stage greatly limits the role of the navy.

To put it more bluntly, in the two seas that Saudi Arabia faces, there is no need for a navy at all, and fighter jets deployed on the territory can neutralize the threat from the sea.

As for operations in the far seas, it is clearly not in the scope of Saudi Arabia's considerations.

With Saudi Arabia's national strength, it is also impossible to build an ocean-going navy.

In previous wars, the Saudi Navy has also performed poorly.

For example, in the military operation to intervene in Yemen's civil war, the navy's sole mission was to conduct an open sea blockade to prevent other countries from supplying weapons and equipment to the Houthis, but the Houthis were still able to obtain large quantities of weapons and equipment from countries such as Iran.

Even so, the Saudi Navy suffered significant losses.

Just a few years ago, a stealth frigate imported from France was attacked by anti-ship missiles off the coast of Yemen and almost sent to the bottom of the sea.

According to the post-mortem investigation, at the time of the attack, the frigate's anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems did not work at all!

This incident made Crown Prince Mohammed furious, not only sent the captain to a military court, but also demoted the admiral commander of the navy to colonel.

It's just that Saudi Arabia has not strengthened its naval construction because of this.

To put it bluntly, there is no need for this at all.

When you see Crown Prince Mohammed, you can't help but be polite.

Later, Wang Dong realized that the situation was developing faster than he expected, and the severity was far beyond his imagination.

Just as he was returning to Riyadh, the Saudis and Iran again clashed in the air, to be precise, fighting.

The place of engagement, still over the Persian Gulf.

Presumably feeling insulted, the Iranian Air Force again sent fighter jets south, crossed the median line of the Persian Gulf and entered the area controlled by the Saudi Air Force.

This time, the Iranian Air Force flew more than a dozen combat aircraft, including eight fighters alone.

Because an E-3C early warning aircraft was deployed in advance, when the Iranian fighter jets flew over, the Royal Saudi Air Force took action, urgently took off eight EF2000s, and also put four F-15SAs equipped with air superiority on the ground, ready to fight to the death with the Iranian Air Force.

We have already played each other before, so this time, neither side is polite.

The battle began at 9:05 p.m. Riyadh time.

As the four Iranian fighter jets crossed the center line of the Persian Gulf and continued to fly south, the four EF2000s that came out of the front were the first to attack with medium-range air-to-air missiles.

This is also the first over-the-horizon air combat carried out by the EF2000, and it is also the first actual combat application of the "Meteor" missile.

Of course, it was also the first time that the Royal Saudi Air Force conducted a real modern air combat after purchasing the EF2000.

As a result, there is nothing to say.

Under the guidance of AWACS aircraft, all 8 "Meteor" missiles launched by 4 EF2000 accurately hit, and all 4 Iranian fighters were shot down.

In fact, before being locked by missiles, 4 Iranian fighters did not know that they had been attacked.

It is too late to wait until it is locked by a missile and then maneuver to evade.

You must know that the "Meteor" is the world's first medium-range air-to-air missile with a ramjet engine, with a power range of an astonishing 120 kilometers, 70% higher than the AIM-120, and can maintain a speed of Mach 4 throughout the power range, as well as a maneuverability of more than 30G.

Purely in terms of "inescapable range", the "Meteor" is the most outstanding medium-range air-to-air missile available today.

Of course, this missile is not without its drawbacks.

Limited by the aerodynamic layout, the "Meteor" is not capable of performing certain maneuvers with high overloads, and therefore is inferior to missiles with rocket engines when dealing with agile targets.

It's just that the fighters used against Iran are obviously more than enough.

According to data intercepted by AWACS, the 4 Iranian fighters that attacked were all F-4E.

These fighters, imported from the United States during the Pahlavi dynasty and have been in service with the Iranian Air Force for half a century, are suspiciously old-fashioned.

Because there are no fighters that can be replaced, the Iranian Air Force has been using them.

It's just that the battle is not over.

After shooting down 4 F-4Es, the EF2000 fleet was attacked.

It was the four Iranian fighters in the second echelon who launched the attack.

Before being locked on by the fire control radar of Iranian fighter jets, EF2000 received an alert from an AWACS aircraft and knew that enemy aircraft were 100 kilometers away.

The four EF2000s that came out of the front immediately turned on the fire control radar and began to search for enemy aircraft.

It was also at this time that the radar warning aircraft of EF2000 intercepted the continuous irradiation signal of the enemy's fire control radar, that is, it had been locked by the enemy aircraft.

Because it has been learned from the AWACS aircraft that the attack is a Su-27 series fighter, and the radar signal signature of the enemy aircraft is extremely obvious, it is an X-band passive phased array radar, so after being locked, the four EF2000s immediately turned around and took the initiative to distance themselves from the enemy aircraft.

That's not the Su-27SK, but the Su-30M.

More importantly, the Su-30M is definitely equipped with AA-12, that is, the R-77 medium-range air-to-air missile, and perhaps even the more powerful R-77M.

If it is the latter, then the range of such missiles is not below the "Meteor".

That is, the EF2000 has already entered the zone of attack of enemy aircraft, and it is quite possible that the enemy aircraft launched missiles after locking on the EF2000.

This judgment was extremely correct, and 4 EF2000s were saved.