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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by onlyrealcuzzo on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:05AM (#22924423)
So you're saying KSA has a higher military budget than 1) The US, 2) China, or 3) Russia?
Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by pixl97 on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:12AM (#22924498)
1 No.

2 No.

3 Yes.

The KSA spends 8.8% of its GDP on military expenditure. Seemingly the largest of any country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_...

Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by TheOtherHobbes on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:54AM (#22925006)
But KSA has no ambitions towards becoming a global military superpower. For a long time it had a choke point on the economy through its resource monopoly. Until recently that was a much more potent weapon than any number of aircraft carriers.

Russia does have superpower ambitions, which is a rather more expensive business.

My cynical suspicion is that much of the KSA military budget is really just a form of kickback - or possibly protection money, depending how you look at it - to the US mil-ind establishment.

While the Saudis are some of the worst people in the world, their ambitions are limited to keeping the ruling dynasty outrageously rich and maintaining power on their own patch of turf.

The Russian establishment is far more dangerous. It not only has links to organised crime, it also has a complement of nukes, bio, and chem weapons. And it has a very developed infowar, hacking, and social destabilisation arm, based on techniques pioneered by the US, with some home-grown twists to increase effectiveness.

This oil war and related COVID crash are going to do huge damage to the economies of both countries - and a lot of others besides - with increased prospects for instability everywhere.

Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by hermitdev on Monday April 20, 2020 @07:11PM (#22929901)
It's my understanding that KSA largely buys its military equipment from the US (certainly in regard to Army equipment and its air force). I'm pretty sure they're one of the countries approved for F-35 export, and they're known to be F-16 and F-15 customers. The F-35 is not cheap, the other two are relatively cheap (still in the millions).

I don't think anyone is expecting KSA to declare war against Russia, but they're currently at war w/ (part of) Yemen, and they're not exactly happy with Iran, either. The middle east is set to explode, even without US involvement.

Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by rfurmani on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:15AM (#22924549)
3) Russia. Look it up.