The Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force (RSSMF; ) is the fifth branch of the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces, responsible for commissioning long-range strategic missiles. The RSSMF formerly had its

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

in an underground command facility in

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...

– the

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. The facility coordinated

's advanced "Peace Shield" radar and air defense systems. In July 2013, the new RSSMF headquarters and academy buildings were officially opened by

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz and current RSSMF commander

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

Jarallah Alaluwayt.

History

The RSSMF's role has grown rapidly since

and other

Arab States of the Persian Gulf The Arab states of the Persian Gulf, also known as the Gulf Arab states (), refers to a group of Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi ...

announced in 2009 an initiative to obtain

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

s as a countermeasure to the

Iranian nuclear program The nuclear program of Iran is one of the most scrutinized nuclear programs in the world. The military capabilities of the program are possible through its mass enrichment activities in facilities such as Natanz and Arak. In June 2025, t ...

. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Prince

Turki bin Faisal Al Saud Turki bin Faisal Al Saud (; born 15 February 1945), commonly known as Turki Al-Faisal, is a Saudi prince and former government official who served as the head of Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency from 1979 to 2001. He is a grandso ...

, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington, both mentioned the Gulf states could acquire their own nuclear weapons as a countermeasure to Iran's. Some experts speculate (by taking into account Saudi Arabia's financial contribution to Pakistan's nuclear weapons program) that Saudi Arabia may receive . One report by the BBC claims "it is a cash-and-carry deal for warheads, the first of those options sketched out by the Saudis back in 2003; others that it is the second, an arrangement under which Pakistani nuclear forces could be deployed in the Kingdom." In January 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Middle East District contracted a joint venture of

AECOM AECOM (, ; formerly AECOM Technology Corporation; stylised A''Ξ''COM) is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The company's official name from 1990–2015 was AECOM Technology Corporation, ...

and

Tetra Tech Tetra Tech, Inc. is an American consulting and engineering services firm based in Pasadena, California. The company provides consulting, engineering, program management, and construction management services in the areas of water, environment, inf ...

to provide architectural and engineering services for the Saudi Missile Program. In 2021, ''

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

'' reported that satellite images indicated that Saudi Arabia was, with Chinese assistance, manufacturing solid fueled missiles of an undetermined type.

Facilities

In total«Why Did Saudi Arabia Buy Chinese Missiles?»
, 30 January 2014. RSSMF operates 4 (probably 5) bases: 1. The Strategic Missile Force has a modern underground ballistic missile base with number 444 which was built in 1956 - the Al-Watah ballistic missile base (discovered with the help of satellite images) - in the rocky central part of Saudi Arabia, some 200 km southwest of the capital city of

. The base has a security perimeter with a checkpoint on the main road, as well as extensive storage and underground facilities. It also includes administrative buildings, two

launch pad A launch pad is an above-ground facility from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. The term ''launch pad'' can be used to describe just the central launch platform (mobile launcher platform), or the entire c ...

s, a communications tower and seven gates leading to the underground facilities. Fortified depots for launchers lie behind the secondary checkpoint in the ravine area. 2. One more partially underground base Rawdah (Raniyya) under the number 633 lies 550 km south-west from the capital and 23 km south of city Ranyah as it stated. Tunnel across the rocky ridge has two entrances which have coordinates (21°3'13"N 49°55'2"E) and (31°3'12"N 42°62'52"E), base itself: 21°2′19.3″N 42°55′36.8″E. At the one can clearly see 87 old DF-3 Chinese missiles (probably for training). Two older bases have similar characteristics, suggesting that they share the same role. Each complex has two missile garrisons (one in the North and another in the South) with another area serving housing, maintenance and administrative functions. The garrisons themselves are located a short distance away within a secured complex. The administrative and support complexes are outside the security perimeter: 3. It is the oldest (from 1988) Al Sulayyil ballistic missile baseGlobalSecurity Org. photo
"Imagery of Al Sulayyil Missile Base Launch Complex Area"
''GlobalSecurity.org'' with number 922 is also known as Wadi ad-Dawasir. Al Sulayyil base was built by the Chinese and lies approximately 450 km southwest of the capital. 4. Al Jufayr (Al Hariq) base with number 811 lies approximately 70–90 km south of Riyadh located at (24.02072, 46.35154). 5. The last unconfirmed base, Ash Shamli under the number 766, probably lies in the desert (27.26361, 40.05388) roughly 750 km north-west of the Saudi capital.

Delivery systems

References

{{Saudi Arabia topics

Strategic Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "troop leadership; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art o ...

Military history of Saudi Arabia 1986 establishments in Saudi Arabia Military units and formations established in 1986 Strategic forces

History

Facilities

Delivery systems

See also

References