If there is one of the biggest lessons that the Iraqi civil war has taught Saudi Arabia, it must be that the navy is too weak.

In the later period, after Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, the Royal Saudi Navy was helpless, let alone ensuring the smooth flow of routes, and could not even protect itself.

It can be said that if it were not for Huaxia's strong mediation, Saudi Arabia would definitely suffer a big loss.

In fact, it was this incident that made the Saudi authorities, especially Crown Prince Mohammed, see through the faces of Europe and the United States.

In the past few decades, Saudi Arabia has always built its national security on the basis of an alliance with the United States, and for Saudi Arabia, ensuring the unimpeded flow of the Gulf oil route is actually the core national security, and Saudi Arabia has always pinned its hopes on the United States and other European and American countries to ensure the smooth flow of the route.

It is precisely for this reason that for decades, Saudi Arabia has not paid much attention to the navy.

With the navies of European and American countries, especially the US Navy, Saudi Arabia does not need to think about sea supremacy at all.

It is a pity that in this civil war, the United States has been sitting on the hill and watching the tiger fight, and has never sent a fleet to the Gulf, let alone helped Saudi Arabia protect sea routes.

As a result, Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz with only a few dozen missile boats.

You know, across the strait, Iran also has hundreds of anti-ship missiles.

It can be said that if it were not for China, Saudi Arabia would not have been able to break Iran's naval blockade in any case.

If this were just a Saudi-Iran-led war, a few months later, Saudi Arabia would have suffered an economic catastrophe because of its blocked oil exports.

For a country like Saudi Arabia, how can there be a war without money?

In fact, relative to the navy, the performance of the Saudi Air Force and the Army is not bad.

Needless to say, the Air Force has always maintained air supremacy and has also undertaken a large number of strike missions.

Even the Army, which has not performed well in Yemen in the past, has performed remarkably well in Iraq, at least much better than the ground forces of other Arab League countries.

It was for this reason that Crown Prince Mohammed decided to build a truly powerful navy.

Of course, you can only rely on buying in the early stage.

Although according to Crown Prince Mohammed's plan, in the future, Saudi Arabia's shipbuilding industry will be established on the basis of King Salman's military industrial city, and strive to become a shipbuilding power in the Gulf region in 10 to 15 years, so as to obtain the ability to build light and medium-sized ships, but in the initial stage, if Saudi Arabia wants to develop and expand its navy, the only option is actually to buy warships from abroad.

Obviously, the United States was excluded in the first place.

Why?

In fact, there are only two types of warships that the United States can export, namely the "Burke" class destroyer and the LCS Littoral Combat Ship.

The former is indeed ridiculously expensive.

As for the latter, Saudi Arabia really doesn't like it.

Of course, Saudi Arabia has also been in contact with the United States, and the first thing that comes to mind is to purchase from the United States, and the "Burke" class was selected, and it is the latest batch.

The result?

The U.S. offer was $4 billion.

It's just a warship, and many supporting weapons need to be purchased separately, such as "Ram" and "Phalanx", and the missiles carried have to be purchased separately.

Including the two helicopters, as well as the matching weapons and ammunition, the purchase of a "Burke" will cost at least $6.5 billion.

Obviously, even if the Saudis are rich and rich, they can't afford to buy such an expensive warship.

You know, according to the most conservative estimates, just for the Persian Gulf direction, Saudi Arabia needs to purchase at least three ships, with a total cost of nearly $20 billion.

If you include the cost of building the base, I am afraid that it will cost $23 billion.

For so much money, all you get is 3 destroyers that are not the most advanced!

During this period, the British also rushed to join in the fun, proposing to improve the Type 45 destroyer on the basis of the Saudi requirements.

To put it simply, it is to lengthen the hull, increase the displacement, install more vertical launchers.

It must be admitted that the Type 45 destroyer really has a great appeal.

Its active phased array radar is somewhat better than that of Burke, and even if the detection range is not far enough, it is enough to deal with Iranian fighters.

The point is that the Type 45 uses a ship-wide integrated power system.

In terms of weapon configuration, it is also a first-class product in Europe.

Of course, the price is much cheaper.

If three ships are purchased, the total price can be controlled within 15 billion US dollars, and the UK promises to provide after-sales service for 30 years.

It's just that this combat effectiveness is really a little worse.

In addition, France and Germany also provided Saudi Arabia with their own warships, the French brought the next generation of frigates, and the Germans were about the same.

The problem is that for Crown Prince Mohammed, who aspires to build a strong navy, it is certainly not frigates that are in sight.

At this point, only the destroyers of Huaxia remain.

In fact, in 2021, that is, when it was in contact with the United States, Saudi Arabia sent a delegation to China to inspect the Jiangnan shipyard in China.

Of course, I also visited a Type 055 destroyer being outfitted.

To say that this guy is a destroyer is actually too polite.

Whether in terms of size, tonnage, or combat effectiveness, the 055 is actually a genuine cruiser, and its combat positioning is also a cruiser.

Why?

In the fleet of the Huaxia Navy, 055 acts as an air defense flagship, that is, directs other warships to conduct air defense operations.

You know, directing air defense operations has always been the task of cruisers.

Even in the U.S. Navy, it is cruisers that command air defense operations, and Burke-class destroyers do not actually have air defense command capabilities.

Of course, as a cruiser, it must be an all-rounder.

Air defense, anti-submarine, anti-ship, ground strike, and even anti-missile operations are all tactical tasks of cruisers, and many of them can only be undertaken by cruisers.

In addition, the Type 055 is also the most powerful warship built in China other than aircraft carriers.

Obviously, Saudi Arabia certainly does not need aircraft carriers.

Crown Prince Mohammed did take a fancy to the warship and also made up his mind to procure.

It is a pity that the number of 055 is too small, and the Huaxia shipyard will first have to meet the needs of the Navy, and only then will it consider accepting orders from other countries.

Even if the Chinese authorities agree to sell 055, I am afraid it will take ten years before it is the turn to build it for Saudi Arabia.

As for providing the relevant technology, it is obviously impossible for the Saudis to build their own, because the Saudis simply do not have the ability to build such large warships.

After some negotiations, Saudi Arabia also realized that there was no need to purchase a tall warship like the 055.

By the beginning of 2022, Saudi Arabia finally adopted the proposal provided by Huaxia to purchase four Type 052E destroyers and four Type 054B frigates.

Of course, these warships were all modified in accordance with the requirements put forward by the Saudis.

More importantly, Huaxia agreed to transfer technology, that is, let some of the warships be built in Saudi Arabia or third-party shipyards that meet the conditions of both sides.