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September 08, 2013
Saudis sign up for Syria strike plan
Moral support and participating are two different things, but this WaPo piece suggests the Saudis are willing to participate
...Saudi Arabia has strongly indicated in recent weeks that it would participate in a U.S.-led strike against Syria, but has not said so explicitly...
Its rumored the Saudis have a bunch of
Brit Storm Shadow ALCM's(1) that could be
launched from their jazzy new Eurofighter Typhoons. The Storm Shadow cruise doesn't have anywhere near the legs the US TLAM
(2) variants do, but it hits pretty hard and is a smidge faster. Storm Shadow needs you to get within a hundred miles or so of the target before cutting it loose.
Presumably the Saudis obtained all that trick cruise hardware and Typhoon launch platforms to keep Iran's aspirations at bay. Whether they'd be willing to expend some of it elsewhere is an open question at this point since obtaining it wasn't exactly non-trivial political exercise.
(1) ALCM = Air Launched Cruise Missile
(2) TLAM = Tomahawk Land Attack Missile
Bonus: a classic Boris Johnson rant about Brit swimming pools and how they were installed in response to global warming fears. When Boris stinks, he stinks bad, but when he's on, he's really on. He's in top form this time.