Royal Saudi Navy

The Royal Saudi Navy is the Naval force of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Royal Saudi Navy is sometimes referred to as the RSNF (Royal Saudi Naval Forces). The Navy has about 13,500 officers and men, including 3,000 Marines. The Naval headquarters is in Riyadh. The Western Fleet is based in the Red Sea with the main base at Jeddah. The Eastern Fleet is based in the Persian Gulf with the headquarters at Jubail. Other naval facilities were located at Yanbu, Dammam, and Ras Mishab.

History

The Navy was founded in 1960 and began a significant expansion with United States assistance in 1972 aiming to match the Imperial Iranian Navy. Following the Iranian Revolution a further expansion programme was initiated with French assistance, this was the Sawari programme. Further vessels were purchased from Britain and France in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1980, U.S. defense contractor Science Applications International Corporation began work with the Royal Saudi Navy to design and integrate the country's own command, control, and communications (C3) centers.