Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)

Overview of part of the static at the WDS in Riyadh. The Saudis went to great lenght in painting their most important fighter aircraft in the overall green livery representing the national flag. (Jurgen van Toor)

World Defense Show 2024

4-8 February 2024

This month the World Defense Show (WDS) was organised for the second time in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. My collection of Saudi military aircraft wasn’t too big yet, and especially the types that don’t leave their country were missing. Apart from that I had never visited Saudi Arabia before, so the show seemed like a good reason to visit this country. And it turned out very well indeed. Here is a log of what was seen. As usual all info was actually read off unless between (brackets).

All units between brackets were either deducted from the serial or given by the crew. The two Hawk mk.165s were inside a separate tent and were revealed during a special ceremony. 2119 is the last one from the second order of 22 aircraft that have been assembled in Saudi Arabia (the first 22 have been assembled in the UK). As one aircraft crashed a few years ago (serial still unknown AFAIK), they now have 43 aircraft available. And 8801 is the first one for the Saudi Hawks. After this season the team will convert to the mk.165, so another 9 to 11 will be painted (and reserialled). Unfortunately I was not able to find the former serial of this 8801.

On February 4th the show was opened with lots of high officials both from Saudi Arabia and abroad present. We had been hoping for some nice visiting VIP aircraft for this occasion, but only a single Cougar arrived with some VIP while the second one probably acted as a decoy. Only demo flying this day was done by the Saudi Hawks. The next day the flying program started out well, but it became less every day. The P-8 only made a single pass, while the F-16s did two or three passes but were almost flying over Kuwait or so. The display of the A-10 was nice to see though. The Rafale also did a few flypasts and that was it. Its sistership on the static already left after the second day by the way. Both the French and almost all Americans were stationed “in the area”, hence their participation.

The support aircraft were a nice bonus. But knowing we had just missed three Chinese Y-20s before we arrived and we would again miss three as these were only arriving the day after we had left, was a bit sour to say the least. However all in all it was a great opportunity to see and photograph quite a few rare Saudi aircraft and helicopters. And the openness of the people helped in getting a lot of useful info on connumbers and units. The next edition of the WDS is planned for 2026 and I can recommend it!

Credits: Patrick Dirksen

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