Saudi Arabian Army

The Saudi Arabian Army (Arabic: الجيش العربي السعودي‎), also called Royal Saudi Land Force (Arabic: القوات البرية الملكية السعودية‎), is a branch of the Saudi Armed Forces. The total number of active troops is estimated to be 175,000. The Chief of the Saudi General Staff until 2011 was Field Marshal Saleh Al-Muhaya.

History

1923 is considered to be the birth year of the Saudi Army, as the modern Saudi Arabia have been Unified and founded as a single state. After the discovery of oil and the meeting between King Abdulaziz and the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 14, 1945, the Americans became the new major ally of Saudi Arabia.

Other events that led to an expansion of the Saudi Army were the Arab–Israeli conflict in 1948, the fall of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the subsequent fears of possible Shia's actions and in the last years the first Gulf War in 1990. In the year 2000, Saudi Arabia's government spent billions of dollars to expand the Saudi Forces including the Saudi Army.