The weapons and equipment mentioned earlier will not be delivered until Saudi Arabia and other Arab League countries withdraw their troops from Iraq, or even after the end of the Iraqi civil war.

There is only one exception for this weapon.

"Land Shield" close defense system.

In addition, this weapon was also called a small-caliber anti-aircraft gun.

After Saudi Arabia and other countries expressed their willingness to withdraw their ground troops from Iraq, Huaxia provided 20 sets of "Ludun 730" close defense systems to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait through Pakistan.

Interestingly, these close defense systems were initially deployed not on the ground, but on ships.

Why?

Acts as an anti-missile interception platform.

After acquiring these close defense systems, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait renovated more than a dozen ships and used them to escort oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.

Although after that, no large-scale tanker attacks broke out, but in several skirmishes, the value of the close defense system was recognized.

For example, shortly after Saudi Arabia and other Arab League countries officially withdrew their ground forces from Iraq, a Kuwaiti-flagged oil tanker was attacked by Iranian missile speedboats in the western waters of the Persian Gulf, and the Kuwaiti speedboats covering the oil tankers at that time were equipped with the "Land Shield 730" close defense system obtained from Huaxia, which shot down two anti-ship missiles fired at the oil tankers in just a few seconds, successfully protecting the oil tankers from entering the port.

In this battle alone, the "Land Shield 730" close defense system became famous.

In fact, at that time, only the "Land Shield 730" close defense system could be deployed on any ship with a tonnage of not less than 250 tons, and there were no requirements for the ship itself, all that was needed was a 20-square-meter deck and a relatively solid deck structure.

Don't forget, the "Land Shield 730" was originally a ground close defense system, so it has completely independent combat capabilities, does not need any additional support from the warship, or even does not need to provide electricity, it is completely driven by its own motors, and the supply required is only ammunition and fuel.

It is this feature that allows the "Land Shield 730" to adapt to almost any deployment environment.

Of course, when deployed on ships, there must be some maintenance problems, after all, when designing, the marine environment was not taken into account.

Fortunately, the impact was not huge.

The point is that the "Land Shield 730" itself was developed from the Navy's 730 close-in rapid-fire gun, and the firepower and fire control system are almost exactly the same as the Navy's, the difference is mainly in the basic platform, that is, the "Land Shield 730" is vehicle-mounted, and it carries much less ammunition.

With the successful interception of anti-ship missiles, the "Land Shield 730" quickly became popular in the Arab League countries.

Shortly thereafter, Kuwait took the lead in purchasing the "730" rapid-fire gun from Huaxia to equip all the ships, and also hired Huaxia engineers to modify the ships.

After Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman also purchased the "Land Shield 730" and the "730" system of the Navy.

The only exception is the Saudis.

After obtaining the first batch of "Ludun 730" and arming the ships, Saudi Arabia set its sights on the "1130" system, which has not yet been used for export in China.

After that, after a long period of negotiations, Saudi Arabia finally became the first overseas user of the "1130" close-in rapid-fire gun, and served in the Royal Saudi Navy along with the warships purchased from China.

However, the Royal Saudi Army also has a strong interest in this rapid-fire gun.

Compared with the "730" system, the biggest change in the "1130" system is the addition of 4 barrels, and the rate of fire has increased from 6,000 rounds per minute to more than 10,000 rounds, so the interception efficiency is higher, and it can theoretically intercept incoming targets with faster speed and smaller size.

In the tests conducted in Huaxia, the "1130" system even successfully intercepted a supersonic anti-ship missile flying at a speed of Mach 2.5.

It can be said that the "1130" system was the only rapid-fire gun in the world at that time capable of effectively intercepting supersonic anti-ship missiles.

Of course, it is not only anti-ship missiles that can be intercepted.

Against rockets, the "1130" system is also handy.

In addition, theoretically, the "1130" system is capable of intercepting large-caliber shells, even mortar shells that are much smaller, albeit much slower.

It's just that when intercepting artillery shells, expensive tungsten alloy armor-piercing shells have to be used.

After a key breakthrough was made in the negotiations on the procurement of the "1130" rapid-fire gun, the Saudi military offered to develop a vehicle-mounted close defense system on the basis of the "1130" in the form of funds, and it is better to directly develop it into a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun capable of accompanying the activities of armored forces.

At that time, Huaxia had a similar idea.

Since Saudi Arabia is willing to provide funds for research and development, then everything is easy to say.

Subsequently, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman joined in, but the main funder was still Saudi Arabia, which covered 60 percent of the development costs.

As a result, Saudi Arabia not only obtained part of the intellectual property rights of "Ludun 1130", a production line, but also obtained the right to sell in the international market.

To put it simply, Saudi Arabia repackaged the "Land Shield 1130" under the name of "King's Shield", and then marketed it to other countries in the name of self-developed weapons.

It's just that the export performance is not very good.

Why?

There are really not many countries that really need this kind of high-end goods.

The King's Shield is available in two versions, with the main difference being the platform, which is a four-axle, eight-wheeled military heavy truck, while the field platform is a Khalid chassis, although it can also be mounted on other tank chassis with standard turret seats.

Both versions of the "King's Shield" are not cheap, with the former having a market price of up to $70 million, while the latter also reaching $55 million.

Such a high price only provides limited close defense capabilities.

Obviously, for non-tyrant countries, they simply can't afford to consume.

In fact, even Huaxia is not equipped with a large number of "land shield" close defense systems.

In the end, only a few local tyrant countries in the Gulf purchased the "King's Shield", and the sales volume was less than 100 sets, and it was mainly a defensive type of important land.

As for performance, I really don't have to say anything.

During the tests, the "King's Shield" once managed to intercept 5 15-mm mortar shells in 120 seconds.

In another test, the King's Shield also destroyed a 155-mm grenade.

As for dealing with all kinds of rockets, as well as air-to-surface missiles, this is even more so.

In combat applications, these "King's Shields" are also mainly deployed near important facilities or to protect long-range anti-aircraft missile systems.

Protect air defense positions with close defense systems?

Of course, it is used to intercept anti-radiation missiles designed to deal with air defense systems.

As for how valuable the "King's Shield" really is, it will be confirmed in the next war.

It will also be at that time that ground close defense systems will really be taken seriously.