UK Deploys Typhoon Fighters to Defend Saudi Arabia: A New Chapter in a Century of Military Ties

The UK will deploy Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon fighters to help Saudi Arabia defend against missile and drone attacks by Yemen's Houthi forces, Britain's Ministry of Defence announced on Tuesday. The package includes fighter jets, an A400M transport aircraft and military advisers.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the fighters will take on a "defensive role" only and will not carry out strikes against the Iran-backed armed group. London also said it would extend the air-to-air refuelling support it has agreed to provide for Saudi air operations, including strikes aimed at degrading Houthi military targets in Yemen.

The decision comes amid intense fighting between the Houthis and Yemen's internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia. In recent weeks the Houthis have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Saudi territory, targeting oil facilities and Riyadh's main airport, while the Saudi-led coalition has carried out airstrikes on Houthi positions.

UK-Saudi ties trace back to World War I

The British fighter deployment is the latest chapter in a partnership spanning more than a century, beginning with a treaty signed during World War I, years before the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came into being.

In December 1915, Percy Cox, a senior British official in the Gulf, signed the Treaty of Darin with Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, then ruler of Nejd in central Arabia, according to India Office records held at the UK National Archives. Under the treaty, Ibn Saud allied with Britain against the Ottoman Empire in exchange for London's financial and arms support. In May 1927, Britain signed a new treaty with him in Jeddah. In 1932, King Abdulaziz founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The first arms deal and the lesson of Yemen

Arms sales between the two countries began in the 1960s. In May 1966, Saudi Arabia signed a contract to buy 40 Lightning fighters and 25 jet trainers from the British Aircraft Corporation, along with a radar system, according to a US State Department memo from the time.

Even then, Yemen was part of the story. In 1962, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was overthrown in a military coup and the Yemen Arab Republic was established. Egypt sent troops to support the republican government, while Saudi Arabia and Jordan armed and funded royalist forces seeking to restore the Imam's rule. By 1966 the civil war had reached a stalemate. At the same time, Britain faced an insurgency by nationalist groups backed by the Soviet Union and Egypt in Aden and southern Yemen, and eventually withdrew in 1967.

Also in 1966, Saudi Arabia's defence minister at the time, Prince Sultan, asked Britain to provide an RAF fighter squadron operating under Saudi colours if fighting in Yemen flared up again, according to declassified US State Department records. Instead, Britain offered to supply fighters flown by British pilots and said it could deploy an RAF Lightning interceptor squadron at short notice if needed. In the end, Saudi Arabia accepted the aircraft and civilian pilots, and the RAF squadron was not deployed.

BAE Systems, formerly British Aircraft Corporation, says its relationship with Saudi Arabia dates back to 1966, and that in 1973 the two governments signed a memorandum designating the company as prime contractor.

The 1980s and the Al-Yamamah deal

In 1985, the two governments signed an oil-for-arms agreement known as Al-Yamamah, covering the Tornado and Hawk fighter lines. Reuters has described the Al-Yamamah contracts as the largest export deals in British history. Saudi Arabia set aside up to 600,000 barrels of oil a day to pay for Tornado fighters and other equipment.

Britain's Serious Fraud Office investigated corruption allegations linked to the deal from 2004, but dropped the inquiry in December 2006, according to a UK House of Lords ruling. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith cited the need to protect national security.

Britain has operated from Saudi territory

In 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, Saudi King Fahd asked friendly governments for support. On 11 August, 12 RAF Tornado fighters flew from Akrotiri in Cyprus to Dhahran in Saudi Arabia, according to the RAF Museum. Further RAF Tornado units were based at Tabuk from October 1990 and at Dhahran from January 1991.

During the war, then defence secretary Tom King told Parliament that Saudi Arabia had provided host-nation support to Britain, and announced that a Tornado based in the kingdom was missing, the fourth lost to enemy action. Afterwards, British aircraft, alongside US and French planes, patrolled no-fly zones over southern Iraq from bases in Saudi Arabia until 2003, according to the US Air Force.

The Typhoon line and a stalled deal

In September 2007, Saudi Arabia agreed to buy 72 Typhoon fighters from Britain, according to the UK Ministry of Defence at the time, to replace Tornados and other aircraft in its air force. The deal was worth £4.43 billion (about $8.9 billion at the exchange rate then). BAE Systems, which builds the aircraft, called it Project Salam.

In March 2018, during a London visit by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Britain signed a memorandum of understanding expected to complete the purchase of 48 more Typhoons, according to a BAE Systems notice to the London Stock Exchange. The deal stalled, however. Germany, which participates in building the Typhoon and holds a veto over its export, halted arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Berlin lifted its objection in January 2024, when then foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said the Middle East had become a completely different place since 7 October 2023. That year, BAE said it was supporting the British government in discussions with Saudi Arabia.

Yemen and recent steps

In June 2019, five years after the Houthis seized Yemen's capital Sanaa, the UK Court of Appeal ruled the government had acted unlawfully by licensing arms sales to Saudi Arabia that could be used in Yemen without assessing whether past incidents violated international humanitarian law. New licences were suspended. In July 2020, then trade secretary Liz Truss told Parliament that licensing would resume, arguing there was no clear risk the weapons would be used in a serious violation of the law.

Britain has also struck the Houthis directly. According to the Ministry of Defence, RAF Typhoons took part in US strikes on Yemen in 2024, after the Houthis attacked Israel-linked shipping in the Red Sea. In September this year, Britain sent a Voyager tanker to support Saudi Arabia in refuelling fighters in the air, and the aircraft being refuelled were British-built Typhoons operated by the Saudi air force.