Saudi’s inability to stop oil attack exposes gaps even with top US defences

The Saudis clearly were not prepared for this assault, which was unusual in its execution and unprecedented in its targeting

Saudi Arabia spent billions to protect a kingdom built on oil but could not stop the suspected Iranian drone and missile attack, exposing gaps that even America’s most advanced weaponry failed to fill. In addition to deciding whether that firepower should be turned on Iran in retaliation, the Saudis and their American allies must now figure out how to prevent a repeat of last weekend’s attack – or worse, such as an assault on the Saudis’ export facilities in the Persian Gulf or any of the desalination plants that supply drinking water.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked Wednesday on his way to Saudi Arabia how it was possible that the kingdom could have dropped its guard, failing to stop any of the low-flying cruise missiles or armed drones that struck the Abqaiq oil processing center – the largest of its kind in the world – and the Khurais oil field. Even the best air defences sometimes fail, he replied.

“We want to make sure that infrastructure and resources are put in place such that attacks like this would be less successful than this one appears to have been.” Easier said than done. “This is an attack of a scale we’ve just not seen before,” Pompeo said. He called the strike “an act of war” but not say what military response might follow…