Recently, a large number of Saudi Arabia have abandoned the purchase of China's Type 052D destroyers on the Internet, and in this news, there is also a lot of hype claiming that Saudi Arabia would rather buy Spain's 2,000-ton frigates than China's Type 052D missile destroyers.
The rumors about Saudi Arabia's purchase of China's Type 052D missile destroyers were originally the imagination of some Chinese military bloggers, and the Saudi Navy intended to purchase some advanced warships, but long before the news rumors, basically everything had already settled, so the news about Saudi Arabia's purchase of China's 052D destroyers was originally our own self-production and self-sale.
And now the so-called news that Saudi Arabia gave up 052D and turned around to buy Spanish Type 2200 missile frigates is also a pure flicker with no connection at all!
Where did the Saudi purchase of 052D rumors come from?
Saudi Arabia wants to buy China's Type 052D destroyer, in fact, it began to come out of the 052D at the UAE Defense Exhibition last year, when the Saudi military procurement personnel who came to the exhibition did show great interest in the 052D, and also personally boarded China's Type 052D destroyer, and also took a photo with China's 7000-ton large destroyer.
Therefore, after this UAE defense exhibition, there were frequent remarks that the Saudi military was interested in China's 052D, and even broke the news that Saudi Arabia wanted to buy 6 Chinese 052D destroyers.
Later, the news intensified, and even the so-called well-known military magazines in Asia were involved, and it was even rumored that Saudi Arabia would buy 12 Chinese 052Ds at once, and the entire arms sales contract would reach 12 billion US dollars!
Naturally, there are many people who care about the news, so in the end, regardless of whether the news is true or not, everyone directly passed on this arms sale into a stable order.
It was not until this year that Spain delivered the five Type 2200 missile frigates purchased by Saudi Arabia, and some people realized that perhaps Saudi Arabia would not buy China's Type 052D destroyers, so there is now news that Saudi Arabia would rather have Spanish small frigates than China's 7,000-ton missile destroyers!
At a glance, you can see that the two are not next to each other at all, Spain's Type 2200 frigate has a full load displacement of only about 2,500 tons, whether it is the tonnage type of the ship or even its role in the navy, it is not at all the same level as China's Type 052D missile destroyer, and the two cannot be compared at all.
So now that Saudi Arabia has purchased Spain's Project 2200 frigates, it basically announces that China's 052D has lost its last chance, and such a statement is completely illogical and basically not next to each other!
In addition, as early as 2018, the two sides signed an order for Saudi Arabia to purchase Spanish frigates, and in December last year, Spain delivered the fourth of the five frigate orders "Jazan" to the Saudi Navy, and the last frigate was delivered in March this year.
As a result, our almighty military bloggers took it as the reason why Saudi Arabia did not purchase China's 052D. What does the order signed five years ago have to do with China's current negotiations with Saudi Arabia to purchase the 052D?
Why is it a rumor that Saudi Arabia bought 052D!
On the other hand, even if Saudi Arabia purchased Spain's Type 2200 frigates, it would not delay the purchase of China's 052D at all. The reason why discerning people know that Saudi Arabia's purchase of 052D is a rumor is because Saudi Arabia spent more than $10 billion as early as 2019 to buy 4 American Littoral class destroyers!
2.1 billion bought 5 Spanish destroyers, plus 10 billion to buy four American Littoral class destroyers, and now that there are all frigates and destroyers, how can Saudi Arabia continue to spend 12 billion to buy China's 052D?
Saudi Arabia is located in the Middle East, although it is located on an important Eurasian shipping lane, but it does not have a very powerful navy around the sea, and is it true that Saudi Arabia has spent such a huge amount of military expenditure to build such a navy to confront the United States? Obviously, even Saudi Arabia, a local tyrant in Africa, will not spend so much unjust money on places that cannot be used!
There may be many military fans who are not convinced, thinking why the future deployment of the Saudi Navy has been completed, and why there is so much interest in China's 052D at the UAE Defense Exhibition last year?
To be honest, even the US Navy itself feels that the US Littoral destroyers are expensive, not to mention the combat effectiveness played in the actual battle, which is also quite touching, and the four warships purchased by Saudi Arabia are definitely a loss to grandma's family!
There may be no harm if there is no comparison before, but it wasn't until they saw China's $1 billion Type 052D destroyer that the Saudi tycoons knew how much money they had to go, so they could only run to the Chinese warship to take a selfie and comfort them, didn't they see the bitter smile on the faces of the Saudi tyrants when they took selfies?
In fact, if the Saudi military were to choose again, they would not choose China's 052D, at most they would choose other more affordable American warships to replace, after all, Saudi Arabia's purchase of American military equipment seems to be an arms sale, but it is actually paying protection money!
In addition, most of the Saudi army is European or American equipment, and it is difficult for China's Type 052D destroyers to integrate into the system even if they join the Saudi Navy!