Red Sands 2025: Saudi Arabia, US Conduct Largest Counter-Drone Drill in Mideast
Saudi Arabia and the US have concluded Red Sands 2025 drill, the largest live-fire counter-drone exercise in the Middle East designed to improve the detection, tracking and elimination of modern drone threats.
During a visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the new commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), Admiral Brad Cooper, visited the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center, alongside the Chief of the General Staff for the Royal Saudi Armed Forces, General Fayyadh bin Hamed Al-Ruwaili, where they reviewed the exercise’s outcomes.
Countering Drone Threats
The Red Sands 2025 exercise, which took place from September 7-14, 2025, focused on boosting cooperation among regional partners to counter the rapidly-growing threat of attack drones.
On this occasion, Adm. Cooper said: “Threats posed by the proliferation of advanced drones are a pressing challenge. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with regional partners to innovate and adapt is more critical than ever.”
The CENTCOM Commander highlighted the significance of the fourth iteration of the drills. “Red Sands brought together US, Saudi and industry capabilities and expertise to identify ‘best in breed’ systems for detecting, tracking and eliminating modern aerial drone threats,” he noted.
Red Sands 2025
According to a press release, Red Sands 2025 exercise marked the culmination of the rapid prototyping and new defensive tactics developed since the launch of the exercise in 2023.
Held at the Shamal-2 Range in northeastern Saudi Arabia, the exercise featured more than 300 personnel who fielded 20 counter-drone systems.
Testing New Tactics
For the rapid detection of simulated air threats, the Saudi and US forces linked sophisticated radars and sensors such as the Signal Hunter—a body-worn geolocation device—and the Buffer Passive Acoustic Detection System (BPADS).
Furthermore, the exercise included integrated command and control systems to eliminate drone swarms, including the Vanguard system.
It also featured other ground-based counter-drone systems such as Skyguard; Shikra; and the Mobile-Low, slow, unmanned Integrated Defeat System (MLIDS); as well as various electronic warfare options.
In order to detect, track and engage the simulated aerial threats, Saudi and US forces flew rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft, including F-15s, AH-64s, and Typhoon fighter aircraft from Saudi Arabia and AC-130 and AH-64 Apache airframes from the US.
The training scenarios culminated in shotgun-fired Drone Defeat Rounds (DDRs) that contained 720 tungsten pellets, designed to deliver greater kinetic energy and effectively neutralize drone threats.
CENTCOM Commander Visit to Riyadh
As part of his first regional trip as the new CENTCOM Commander, Admiral Cooper visited Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, where he met with the Saudi Defense Minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, in Riyadh.
During their meeting, the two officials reviewed aspects of bilateral defense cooperation in the defense and military fields, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
They also discussed the latest regional developments and their shared efforts to address them in a way that preserves international peace and security.
