The "Davis News" website, which specializes in military and security news, reported that "Morocco builds a new air defense base in the Sidi Yahya Al -Gharb area, which is located northeast of the capital Rabat.
Pictures of satellites obtained by "Defense News", according to the same source, show the air base in the Sidi Yahya Al -Gharb region, and it was taken via "Google Earth", but it did not share the accurate coordinates "for reasons related to national security", as she put it.
"The facility is definitely an air defense base," Jeffrey Lewis, who runs the project to prevent the spread of weapons in East Asia at the Middleberry Institute for International Studies in Monterey, said in a statement to the Davins News website, when receiving the coordinates and images..
The company “China North Industries Group Limited”, which is usually referred to as “NORNCO-24”, has handed over a medium-range air-to-air missile “Sky Dragon 50” to Morocco.
The Kingdom also bought the French short -term missile defense system "VL MIKA".A contract worth 200 million euros ($ 226 million) has been signed for the vertical launch system between the European missile manufacturer "MBDA" and Morocco in 2019.
"Building the base, which started in 2017, suggests that it was created with the position of purchase of defense systems in mind.Moreover, a picture of Sky Dragon 50 of the Royal Armed Forces appeared on this site..
In this regard, Mohamed Shuqair, an expert in military and security affairs, said that "the base of Sidi Yahya Al -Gharb was built in order to host air defense units," highlighting that "this rule will include air defense systems.".
Shukair added, in a statement to the electronic newspaper Hespress, that "this rule will occupy air defense systems purchased from China, the Patriot-3 missile systems from the United States, as well as defense systems from Israel, after the recent visit of the Israeli Minister of Defense to Morocco and the agreements signed between the two parties.".
He stressed that "Morocco is a kind of its international partners in order to acquire the best weapons and prepare well for any scenario," highlighting that "the Royal Armed Forces depend on American, Chinese and Israeli weapons in order to choose the best and most appropriate.".