The monarch replaces the heads of the ground forces and air defenses, as well as civilian officials including several deputy ministers, in a series of late-night royal decrees

RIYADH Saudi Arabia – Saudi King Salman on Monday, February 26, replaced top military commanders including the chief of staff, state media said, in a major shake-up of the kingdom's defense establishment. The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) s aid that Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud had issued the orders that included reshuffles for the positions of chief of general staff and the commanders of the country's air defense force, land forces and strategic missiles force. No official reason was given for the sweeping overhaul, but it comes as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pursues military reform and a bloody campaign against Yemen's Iran-aligned Huthi rebels nears the end of its third year. Several new deputies in economic and security-related ministries as well as a handful of new city mayors were appointed, including Tamadur bint Youssef al-Ramah as deputy labour minister, a rare senior post for a woman in the deeply conservative kingdom. Prince Al-Waleed, dubbed the Warren Buffett of Saudi Arabia, was among princes, ministers and tycoons detained in Riyadh's luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel in an unprecedented crackdown on what the government calls elite corruption. "The changes come on the heels of the SAMI exhibition, which is a critical part of the Prince Mohammed's reform plan to create an indigenous defense program," he added,

Crown Prince Mohammed, the son of the monarch and heir to the throne, is the country's defense minister and has been consolidating his grip on power in recent months while pushing major economic and social reforms.
Saudi King Salman replaces top army commanders and reshuffles key security and government ministries.