144. Letter From the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Packard) to Saudi Arabian Minister of Defense and Aviation Prince Sultan ibn Abd al-Aziz al Saud1

Your Royal Highness:

With reference to Secretary Laird’s letter of January 28,2 I am pleased to inform Your Highness that the United States Department of Defense has completed its review of the Evaluation Team’s study of Saudi Arabian current and projected defense plans and programs. The team’s report, with its findings and recommendations, is enclosed.3 For Your Highness’ convenience, and to facilitate the dissemination of the conclusions of this report within your government, I include an Arabic translation of the team’s principal findings and recommendations.

In their report General Leahy and his associates stress the need for careful planning and for a thorough continuing scrutiny of all projects and expenditures in the light both of the Kingdom’s overall security requirements and from the standpoint of maintaining within the Saudi Arabian Government budget a careful balance between expenditures for military and for civilian development purposes. In particular, the report focuses on the importance of giving highest priority, in terms of investment of scarce funds and manpower, to those ongoing military projects in which considerable investment has already been made by your government. The report further recommends that in times of financial stringency serious consideration might well be given to postponement or scaling down of any major projects.

Specific, detailed suggestions regarding budget and manpower ceilings and orders of priorities are outlined by General Leahy and the members of his team in their report with its several supporting Annexes. I concur with these suggestions and urge that they be given careful study by Your Highness and by the members of your staff. If found acceptable and adopted by your government, I am convinced that these proposals can make a significant contribution to the modernization and strengthening of the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces along sound and economical lines.

One of the future programs to which the evaluation team addressed itself was the proposal for expansion of the Royal Saudi Navy [Page 463] from its present strength to a force of nineteen ships. I am informed that His Majesty the King and his government have assigned a very high priority to this program. I am also aware that you have requested the United States to play a major role in assisting with its implementation through the sale of ships and related military equipment, supervision of the design and construction of shore facilities, and the training of Saudi naval personnel. In view of the high priority which your government has given this program, and in light of the evaluation team’s finding that an expansion to nineteen ships over a ten-year period is both feasible and desirable, I am instructing General Dunlop, Chief of our Military Training Mission, to seek an early meeting with you and the members of your staff to determine more precisely those vessels, equipment and training that can be provided from United States sources. With respect to the surface-to-surface missile system specified for the six high-speed craft, these missiles are not manufactured by the United States and it would probably not be economically feasible to do so. In the opinion of United States Navy experts, considerable study and experimentation would be needed to integrate this type of weaponry into the projected Saudi Navy. In the event these and other items may prove unavailable from US sources, we are prepared to consider further with your staff possible alternative sources of procurement.

As Your Highness is aware, the United States remains deeply interested in the continued security and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For that reason we have worked closely with the Saudi Arabian military for the past twenty years to develop to the greatest extent possible their capability to preserve the sovereignty and independence of your country. We are proud of the accomplishments that have been achieved during this period. I wish to assure Your Highness that we intend wherever possible to continue to respond favorably to reasonable requests for advisory and technical assistance and for the sale of military equipment to Saudi Arabia for purposes of legitimate self-defense.

With sincere best wishes for your continued health and happiness.

Sincerely yours,

David Packard
  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, OSD Files, FRC: 330–76–067, Box 83, Saudi Arabia 1970. Confidential. No drafting information.
  2. See footnote 7, Document 136.
  3. Attached but not printed.