Defending our borders

Since the establishment of modern day Saudi Arabia on Sept. 23, 1932 it has adopted non-interference in the internal matters of other countries as the basic pillar of its foreign policy and has always concentrated on the progress and prosperity of Saudis.
The Kingdom has always preferred maintaining cordial ties with all its neighbors. Saudi Arabia has never taken any aggressive action against any country or group. It only retaliates in case any group or country poses threat to its stability and security. In case of any threat along the Saudi borders or to Saudi interests, our armed forces are fully capable of dealing with it effectively.
Area-wise the Kingdom is a huge country, which needs a well-trained armed force and advanced war machines to protect it from any foreign threat. The Kingdom is situated in the heart of the Middle East, which is currently the most volatile region of the world. Due to the Arab Spring, many countries in the region have turned into cauldrons of chaos with rampant lawlessness and unscrupulous elements committing crimes against humanity.
Many of those terrorist groups pose a great threat to Saudi Arabia. They even planned to attack Saudi Arabia. So, it is time for our forces to swing into action. Most importantly, it is time for our modern air force to break the sound barrier but this time to wage war against terrorism. What should the Saudis do to counter this menace?
A few days back, the Kingdom joined the coalition to destroy the self-ascribed Islamic State (IS), which is anything but Islamic. Royal Saudi Air Force launched attacks against IS targets. After the first wave of attacks, photos of some of the pilots who took part in the operation were released. Two of those pilots caught the attention of Saudis and the entire world. Those two belongs to the Saudi royal family. One was Prince Khalid Bin Salman. He is the son of Crown Prince Salman. The other was Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz bin Bander. Both are young and bright pilots.
The participation of members of the royal family in such a dangerous mission did not come as a surprise to Saudis, as it was not the first time we witnessed such a thing. We have seen similar actions when the Kingdom was dragged into different conflicts in the past.
Let us talk about the Royal Saudi Air Force. It is one of the few air forces in the world that enjoy being a full complement air force with its massive assets of fighters, interceptors, troop transporters, mid-air refueling tankers, wide versions of helicopters, very sophisticated command and control centers and most important, the well-trained fighters pilots. Few years ago, aviation statistics (worldwide) say that the highest number of hours being flown by an F-15 pilot was a Saudi air force fighter pilot. Our air force is one of the only four air forces around the world which had engaged in air-to-air combat and won using the airborne tracking system, which is known as the (AWACS).
Every fighter pilot in the world must have broken the sound barrier, but, not every pilot broke the sound barrier while flying, navigating, communicating, tracking, looking out for enemy fire, locking on enemy target and destroying the enemy targets and that too in a few seconds.
In the past few decades, Saudi air force had seen many fighter pilots from the Saudi royal family who participated in protecting our borders. Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Muqrin, Secretary General of the National Security Prince Bander bin Sultan, Riyadh Gov. Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulazia, the former governor of the Najran province, Prince Mishaal bin Saud, Prince Turki bin Nasser, Prince Mansour bin Bander Mohammed bin Faisal and many others used to be fighter pilots who broke the sound barrier while fighting the enemies.
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