Saudis interested in Russian nuclear-capable missiles

Saudi Arabia may be the first foreign buyer of a Russian missile system capable of carrying nuclear warheads, according to a report in Kommersant quoted by the Moscow Times.

The Iskander-E missile system “is a very deadly system, and we don’t know how Saudi Arabia might use it … and they are close allies of the US, so there is a risk that if we deliver Iskanders to them, the US will get to inspect the system and then develop countermeasures against it, because it’s also designed to hit US allies in Europe, such as Poland,” the Moscow Times quotes Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based defense think tank, as saying.

Pukhov further assesses that the deal is unlikely to go through.

The report in Kommersant comes after a meeting between the Russian and Saudi foreign ministers and cites unidentified sources in the Russian defense industry.

Russian news agencies are quoting the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir as saying that “intensive contacts are taking place between the military delegations and specialists from both countries and a wide range of intended types of armaments from Russia is being discussed, including Iskander missile systems.”

The Moscow Times further quotes the HIS Jane’s Defense think tank as saying the Saudi are interested in a “wide variety” of Russian hardware, including frigates for the Saudi navy.

The Saudi Arabian peninsula faces no naval threats from the west, where the Red Sea separates it from its close ally Egypt, while in the south it borders with Yemen. The eastern border of Saudi Arabia is the Gulf, called Arabian Gulf by the Saudis and Persian Gulf by Iran.

The primary use for the Iskander system is as a conventional assault weapon. The missiles can be guided in various methods including scouts on the ground or satellites, even by UAVs hovering near the targets. The system be retargeted in mid-flight, and its maneuvering capabilities enable it to evade enemy missile defenses.

It has never yet been sold to a foreign country apart from nations which are close allies of Russia and were part of the Soviet Union.