section_path: Government and politics/Military
section_name: Military
paragraph_text: Military
  
  Saudi Arabia's military forces include the Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia under the Ministry of Defence, which consist of the Royal Saudi Land Forces (which include the Royal Guard), the Air Force, the Navy, the Air Defence, and the Strategic Missile Force; the Saudi Arabian National Guard under the Ministry of National Guard; paramilitary forces under the Minister of Interior, including the Saudi Arabian Border Guard and the Facilities Security Force; and the Presidency of State Security, including the Special Security Force and the Emergency Force. As of 2023 there are 127,000 active personnel in the Armed Forces, 130,000 in the National Guard, and 24,500 in the paramilitary security forces. The National Guard is made up of tribal forces that are loyal to the Saudi royal family and have a role in both domestic security and foreign defence. Saudi Arabia has security relationships with the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, which provide it with training and weapons.
  
  Saudi Arabia has one of the highest percentages of military expenditure in the world, spending around 8% of its GDP in its military, according to the 2020 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimate, which places it as the world's third largest military spender behind the United States and China, and the world's largest arms importer from 2015 to 2019, receiving half of all the U.S. arms exports to the Middle East. Spending on defence and security has increased significantly since the mid-1990s and was about US$78.4 billion as of 2019. According to the BICC, Saudi Arabia is the 28th most militarized country in the world and possesses the second-best military equipment qualitatively in the region, after Israel. Its modern high-technology arsenal makes Saudi Arabia among the world's most densely armed nations.
  
  The kingdom has a long-standing military relationship with Pakistan; it has long been speculated that Saudi Arabia secretly funded Pakistan's atomic bomb program and seeks to purchase atomic weapons from Pakistan in the near future.
  
  In March 2015, Saudi Arabia mobilized 150,000 troops and 100 fighter jets to support its intervention in the civil war in neighbouring Yemen. By early 2016, Saudi ground forces and their coalition allies captured Aden and parts of southwest Yemen, though the Houthis continued to control northern Yemen and the capital city Sanaa. From there the Houthis launched successful attacks across the border into Saudi Arabia. The Saudi military has also carried out an aerial bombing campaign and a naval blockade aimed at stopping weapons shipments to the Houthis.