Saudi TSP: Tornado Upgrades, incl. Storm Shadow’s Stealth Strike

RSAF Tornado IDS

In February 2010 Defense News reported that Saudi Arabia’s fleet of Tornado low-level, medium-range strike fighters would soon be receiving a pair of significant enhancements: MBDA’s stealthy Storm Shadow medium range cruise missiles, and the MBDA/Boeing Brimstone anti-armor missile. The Storm Shadow would give the Saudis a potent long range strike capability against even heavily-defended targets, while the Brimstone missiles will allow Saudi fast jets to serve in an assault-breaker role, or offer reliable close air support for ground forces.

These developments were actually Phase 2 of an ongoing effort to keep the RSAF’s Tornado strike fleet relevant until at least 2020, under BAE Systems’ Saudi Tornado Sustainment Programme (TSP).

Iraq, South Sudan: End of Year Offers No Respite

US Helps Iraq, from the Outside

• More than 8,000 Iraqis died in 2013 as the al-Qaeda-related Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) launched hundreds of attacks over the year. The US is delivering Hellfire missiles and Scaneagle UAVs as the State Department condemned these attacks.

Situation Getting Worse in South Sudan

• The UN Security Council agreed to ramp up peacekeeping forces in South Sudan as the violence in the country threatens to develop into a full-fledged civil war. Chinese oil workers were evacuated to Sudan.