Saudi military spending is approximately $83 billion annually.
By Hezy Laing
Saudi Arabia spends tens of billions of dollars every year on its armed forces, yet the kingdom is seeking Israeli assistance as it confronts a resurgent Houthi threat from neighboring Yemen.
The contrast is striking: Saudi Arabia possesses one of the Middle East’s largest defense budgets, but the relatively lightly equipped Houthi movement has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to threaten Saudi territory, oil infrastructure and shipping.
The Saudi-Houthi confrontation is part of Yemen’s wider civil war, which began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition of Arab states and intervened militarily to support Yemen’s internationally recognized government and push back the Houthi takeover.
The conflict has since become intertwined with the broader Saudi-Iranian rivalry, with the Houthis receiving Iranian support.
A UN-backed truce in 2022 sharply reduced fighting, but it did not produce a permanent peace agreement.
The conflict has subsequently entered another period of escalation, with Houthi missile and drone attacks threatening Saudi territory and regional shipping.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Saudi Arabia spent an estimated $80.3 billion on its military in 2024, making it the largest military spender in the Middle East and the seventh-largest worldwide.
Israel, by comparison, spent $46.5 billion in 2024, although Israeli military expenditure surged by 65% that year because of the war that began after October 7, 2023.
More recent estimates put Saudi military spending at approximately $83 billion, underscoring the enormous resources Riyadh devotes to defense.
Yet the money does not provide the country with the intelligence, operational experience and integrated air-defense capabilities it needs to defeat the missile-and-drone threat it faces.
The Houthis have developed a substantial arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles, drones and anti-ship weapons, with significant Iranian assistance.
Their ability to launch relatively inexpensive weapons against much more expensive targets has created a difficult military equation for Saudi Arabia.
Their attacks have included strikes against energy infrastructure and threats to shipping through the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
That challenge has now brought Saudi Arabia into discussions with Israel.
Recent reports describe Saudi-Israeli contacts concerning Israeli intelligence assistance against the Houthis, with the reported cooperation initially focused on intelligence and early warning.
Such information could help Riyadh identify Houthi deployments and better protect strategic infrastructure.
Rather, the Houthi conflict illustrates a broader lesson of modern warfare: expensive aircraft, missiles and armored vehicles cannot by themselves eliminate a dispersed opponent operating with relatively inexpensive drones and missiles.
Saudi Arabia’s experience also highlights an area in which Israel has accumulated extensive operational experience—detecting, tracking and intercepting repeated missile and drone attacks.
For Riyadh, the confrontation is therefore about more than defense spending.
It is about turning enormous military resources into the intelligence, coordination and rapid-response capabilities needed to counter an unconventional enemy operating just across the border.
