Meet the young pilot just named as Saudi ambassador to the US

Saudi Arabia on Saturday appointed Prince Khaled bin Salman as its new ambassador to the United States, replacing 66-year old Prince Abdullah bin Faisal bin Turki who served in the role for just about 18 months.

Prince Khaled, who is the younger brother to current Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is a former F-15 pilot. He reportedly graduated from Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi in 2009.

The Prince led some of the anti-Daesh airstrikes in Syria back in 2014. He piloted one of four aircraft as part of the coalition that included US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan, along with other countries.

Prince Khaled took a place in Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense after his active duty ended, and in 2016 moved to the US to become an adviser to the Saudi Arabian embassy, Al Arabiya reported.

He is the Kingdom’s tenth ambassador to the US since 1945.

An AFP report cited president of Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee, Salman al-Ansari, as saying that Khaled is a “very organized personality, savvy, youthful, and active.”