Saudi Arabia: Military Aid
(asked on 4th March 2019) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) British military liaison officers and (b) advisers are (i) currently embedded and (ii) have been embedded in organisations in Saudi Arabia in each year since 2015; with which organisations they have been embedded; and how many, at what rank and role, have worked in Saudi Air Operations Centres.
As at 10 February 2019 there were 17 British military staff embedded in organisations in Saudi Arabia; 10 in the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabia National Guard (SANG), four in the Royal Navy Liaison Team and three in the Saudi Air Operations Centre.
Manning statistics for these personnel since 2015 are as follows:
Embedded Organisation | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
Saudi National Guard | 11 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 |
Royal Saudi Naval Force | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
Saudi Air Operations Centre | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
The role of the individuals working in the Saudi Air Operations Centre is to observe Saudi-led coalition (SLC) air operations to help support Saudi compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The UK has provided three military staff (RAF) to the Saudi Air Operations Centre since 2015. These are; one x Squadron Leader, one x Flight Lieutenant and one x Flight Sergeant.