
Lieutenant General Fahd al-Ghufaili, centre, stands in front of the previously unseen counter-UAV system during an inspection of the Northwest Region Command. (Ministry of Defense in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Defense (MoD) released a photograph on 22 January showing what appeared to be a previously unknown counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system.
The photograph was released to show a visit that Lieutenant General Fahd al-Ghufaili, the deputy chief of the General Staff, made to Northwest Region Command. The system was on a raised position under a camouflage net with its antennas deployed.
The combination of antennas, which included what looked like Israeli-developed Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars (MHRs), was similar to, but not the same as one that Israel's Elbit Systems advertises for its ReDrone counter-UAV system. This combines the MHR radars with electro-optical and signals intelligence systems to detect and identify small UAVs and a jammer to disrupt their communication and navigation signals.
The distinctively shaped MHR was made by Rada until the Israeli company merged with Leonardo DRS in November 2022.
The Saudi system's location could be identified as the headquarters of the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces' (RSADF's) 3rd Air Defence Group in Tabuk, because part of the distinctive main gate of the neighbouring King Faisal Air Base could be seen in the background. Satellite imagery shows the system is mounted on a truck and was deployed at that position sometime between 1 March and 10 April 2023.
Two similar systems have been deployed near one of the RSADF's Chinese-made Silent Hunter mobile laser air-defence systems in the Al-Diriyah district, northwest of Riyadh, since at least 4 May 2022.
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