Intel: Pentagon looks to continue Saudi air force training despite shooting

The Pentagon awarded a $15 million contract to a Virginia-based company to provide English-language training to Saudi Arabia’s air force at an air base in Riyadh, just hours after a Saudi national killed three people at a naval installation in Florida on Thursday.

The move is the latest effort from the Pentagon to temper blowback from the shooting on the robust US military relationship with Riyadh, as the United States reportedly looks to deploy thousands more American troops to the kingdom to counter Iran (though the Defense Department has refuted these stories at least five times in the past week).

Downplaying the impact: Speaking to Fox News Dec. 8, Defense Secretary Mark Esper downplayed reports that other Saudi trainees had filmed the shooting, telling Chris Wallace that “today, people pull out their phones and film everything and anything that happens.”

Esper also told Wallace he’s asked US base commanders to review their screening procedures for foreign nationals in the wake of the shooting.