The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have concluded Red Sands 2025, the largest counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) live-fire exercise ever conducted in the Middle East.
Held at the Shamal-2 range in northeastern Saudi Arabia from September 7 to 14, 2025, the exercise featured systems including Shikra, Skyguard, and the Mobile Low, Slow, Unmanned Integrated Defeat System (MLIDS), among others.
The note provides an overview of the following aspects:
- The performance of the systems tested at Red Sands 2025
- Saudi evaluation of these systems
- The systems Saudi Arabia showed interest in procuring
- Saudi conditions for moving forward with a deal
