Which Arab Country Has Strongest Military?

[merocaine]

The Yemen are my pick for the best natural warriors in the Mid East, on there own turf there more than a match for any other arab armys, they like to fight and have a real warrior tradition. There more like afgans than arabs in mentality.When they werent fighting the brits they were fighting each other, the suprising thing is that there at peace at the moment.

Army The Yemeni army divides it's 60,000 soldiers into 10 armored brigades, 23 infantry brigades, 5 mech brigades, 2 airborne brigades, 5 militia brigades, 7 artillery brigades, 3 SSM brigades. The supreme leader of the armed forces is Field Marshall, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the President of the Republic of Yemen.

MBTs: 1,275, T-34, T-54T-55, T-62, M-60A1

Pound for pound the hardest bastards in the mid east!

 

[Waylander]

But Spirit is not enough if you have to face a modern army while sitting in a T-34.

 

[merocaine]

But Spirit is not enough if you have to face a modern army while sitting in a T-34.

a handful of T34's! but come on look at the opposition they'd face. It's not like your measuring them against the USA or china.
They know how to fight and there combat experenced, which is more than you can say about any other state actor in the arab league.(apart from the algerians)
The military is undergoing an extensive up grade at the moment.

They also have lots of IFV's 300 BMP-1 BMP-2 APC: 670 M-113, BTR-40/-60.

so they would be quite moblie in a ground war
and they have a lot of arti.
sourced from wikipedia.

Yeah Yemen are my boys in the middle east, simple kit but at least they know how to use it, those crazy yemen's would be praying in mecca before the saudis could figure out where the ignition is on there M1's

 

[Waylander]

What are their air force capabilities?
If I look at the Saudi air force I see that their are able to dominate the air with F-15s and AWACS and than hit vitale bases and hunt down the Yemeni artillery with Tornados (Or is the arti self propelled?).
As long as I know the desert there is very open and such a terrain is in favour of modern equipment more than fighting spirit.
They might be able to maneuver but in the end they have to face the enemy and this is not very easy against an enemy which outmatches you in terms of firepower, protection, recon and air support.

 

[Big-E]

MBTs: 1,275, T-34, T-54T-55, T-62, M-60A1

Pound for pound the hardest bastards in the mid east!

Pound for pound their army is the biggest pile of junk in the ME!

 

[Big-E]

give me a break

Your the one who says Yemen lb for lb is the best... you give me a break.

 

[merocaine]

What are their air force capabilities?
If I look at the Saudi air force I see that their are able to dominate the air with F-15s and AWACS and than hit vitale bases and hunt down the Yemeni artillery with Tornados (Or is the arti self propelled?).
As long as I know the desert there is very open and such a terrain is in favour of modern equipment more than fighting spirit.
They might be able to maneuver but in the end they have to face the enemy and this is not very easy against an enemy which outmatches you in terms of firepower, protection, recon and air support.

They have the usual assortment of aging 60's 70's era intersepters, plus about 30 mig 29's (K)? refurbished in the late 90's. They do have self propelled arti 152' plus a number of frogger missles.
They have SA7 and SA9, plus and lot of anti air arti.

Hunting down arti in the desert and vectoring in interceptors using awacs takes a lot of skill, would you be confident that the saudis would be able to handle it?
Now if the saudis had there american advisers running the show it might be different, but I dont think they would be able to react quickly enough in a war situation to make there advantages count.
The other thing is the saudi armed forces dont run on merit all the commanders are pick for there family standing, not there war fighting ability.
The Yemenis are a much more hard nosed bunch, dirt poor and patriotic, with commanders who proved themselfs in a tough (but brief civil war).

one of the other posters come up with this little anetdote

Heres the deal no matter how much equip you have it doesn't matter if you cant use it. I am talking about first hand experience, they were here for joint exercises and they had trouble driving trucks in the desert(which we do regularly & they were UNIMOG's it is im possible to get them stuck). secondly they have hundreds of Abrams but if a problem occurs the tank is taken off and is sent to the contractor for repair and I am talking about oil filter change and air filter chang.

not much good in a war situation.

 

[merocaine]

Your the one who says Yemen lb for lb is the best... you give me a break.

no no you give me a break, i said it first!

all the tech in the world can't help you if you can't read the manual, and you commander is a flunky installed at the insistance of prince no brains.

 

[Big-E]

no no you give me a break, i said it first!

all the tech in the world can't help you if you can't read the manual, and you commander is a flunky installed at the insistance of prince no brains.

I have trained the members of the royal family and they are no dummies. Most have graduate degrees in one field or another. By the time most Saudi personell are finished training with their western advisors they are as good as anybody can be. No one in the Middle East gets as much western assistance as they do and no one gets as much training time either. It's all about money and they've got it.

 

[merocaine]

It's all about money and they've got it.

wrong
If it was all about money america never would have got its independence, and would never lost a war since.
France would have won in indochina
Russia in afganistan
Britain in Ireland
Rome aganist the barbarians
Persians against the Greeks.....
You have to want it, and all the Sauds want are the latest Beemers and that cute filopino maid.

I have trained the members of the royal family and they are no dummies. Most have graduate degrees in one field or another

Please enlighten me.

The only people who work in saudi (Named after a family?!?) are the immigrents, 12000 royals each living on a basic stipid end of 30000 a month free, while there is 40% unemployment amoung the general saudi population.
There raised on Islam and hate the west like posion.
95% of saudis(poll conducted after just after 911) were proud of the 911 bombers, maybe you met some westernised saudis who had an education, but there the exception not the rule, the rule is poor and ignorent.

It's a sick country that would fall apart the moment you kicked the door.
So they have some shiny new kit the bearly understand, its for show dude, why do you think they need american troops on there soil?? cause the House of Saud don't have any faith in there own armed forces.
I worry what will happen to the country if any Islamics get into power, with all that kit laying around they could do some real damage, but the house of Saud no chance dude, no chance.

 

[Big-E]

wrong
If it was all about money america never would have got its independence, and would never lost a war since.
France would have won in indochina
Russia in afganistan
Britain in Ireland
Rome aganist the barbarians
Persians against the Greeks.....
You have to want it, and all the Sauds want are the latest Beemers and that cute filopino maid.

huh, why is America #1... $$$

Please enlighten me.

The only people who work in saudi (Named after a family?!?) are the immigrents, 12000 royals each living on a basic stipid end of 30000 a month free, while there is 40% unemployment amoung the general saudi population.
There raised on Islam and hate the west like posion.
95% of saudis(poll conducted after just after 911) were proud of the 911 bombers, maybe you met some westernised saudis who had an education, but there the exception not the rule, the rule is poor and ignorent.

It's a sick country that would fall apart the moment you kicked the door.
So they have some shiny new kit the bearly understand, its for show dude, why do you think they need american troops on there soil?? cause the House of Saud don't have any faith in there own armed forces.
I worry what will happen to the country if any Islamics get into power, with all that kit laying around they could do some real damage, but the house of Saud no chance dude, no chance.

Every last one of your figures are WRONG. If your going to slam the house of Saud then do it with THE facts. If we are going to debate this I'm not going to do it based on lies and half-truths. I claim you are mistaken about

1) 40% unemployment... more like Yemens status
2) All 12,000 royals getting 30k a month or even an average of that.
3) 95% of Saudis being proud of 911

which is every statistic you put on the table...

 

[merocaine]

30% in 2003, thats the latest figures I can get, estimated to be much higher, if 30% is what there admiting.
They have a huge forigen work force, dont count them and the unemployment rate for Saudi nationals shoots up.
The Saudi's are not to forth coming on those figures.....
Cause its a medievil dictatorship!

Sorry there's more than I thought 25'000 at the latest count "family members"
The Princes 3000/4000 of them figures are hazy!?! recieve an annual stipid end of 1/2 a million. Not including perks for having large familys ect, but then why would they give the real figures for what they skim off the top, it not like it would be in the Saud's interest to let there people know how badly there being shafted.

Those were the figures after 911 dude,

those are the figures from July
At the present time, however, public opinion in Saudi Arabia is more anti-American than at any time in recent history. According to a July Zogby International poll, 94 percent of Saudis held unfavorable impressions of U. S. policy toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; 81 percent opposed U.S. policy in Iraq. Most important, 70 percent had an unfavorable opinion, not just of American policy, but of the American people.

By the way unfavorable opinion is a polite way of saying things.

By the way I really am courious, they must have payed you well when you were training all those high up saudi types, is that top secret or something?
How was the compound? meet any average Joes on your travels, did they have degree's to? Sorry to be sarcastic but you did'ent back any of your training claims up
What ever way you dice it, you were working for dodgy little dictatorship ran by a bunch of medievil princes, you saw what they wanted you to see, no more.

Anyway we were talking about there army, motivation and leadership a decent NCO structure, and real commanders, not place men, Saudi has none of those.

In July 04 when a bunch of Terr's walked in to a guest worker compound it took a day for the Saudi special forces to arrive, by which time the T's had killed 22 workers, and 3 out of the 4 T's got away clean.....
They even had Lunch in one of the hotels
That kind of stuff doesent fill me with confidence, I'm sorry as well trained as the Isrealies dont make me Laugh!!:lol3

 

[Big-E]

30% in 2003, thats the latest figures I can get, estimated to be much higher, if 30% is what there admiting.
They have a huge forigen work force, dont count them and the unemployment rate for Saudi nationals shoots up.
The Saudi's are not to forth coming on those figures.....
Cause its a medievil dictatorship!

Well I got 2005/4 results from KA and CIA and they say it's about 13%.
CIA 2003 on the other hand rates Yemen at 35%, maybe thats what you were looking at. :eek

Sorry there's more than I thought 25'000 at the latest count "family members"
The Princes 3000/4000 of them figures are hazy!?! recieve an annual stipid end of 1/2 a million. Not including perks for having large familys ect, but then why would they give the real figures for what they skim off the top, it not like it would be in the Saud's interest to let there people know how badly there being shafted.

Those were the figures after 911 dude,

Actually they get $250,000... April 26, 2004, House of Saud / Bush... so I don't see how you get those figures "dude" considering they are from 2000... before 9-11 http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zeroes/House_Saud.html

these are the figures from July
At the present time, however, public opinion in Saudi Arabia is more anti-American than at any time in recent history. According to a July Zogby International poll, 94 percent of Saudis held unfavorable impressions of U. S. policy toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; 81 percent opposed U.S. policy in Iraq. Most important, 70 percent had an unfavorable opinion, not just of American policy, but of the American people.

Saudis saying they hate Israel should be 100%. That doesn't mean they are going to commit suicide after 9-11 and say they hate America. It never happened. You know most Americans have an unfavorable stance on Bush's foriegn policy so I'm suprised that isn't 100% to.:lol3

By the way unfavorable opinion is a polite way of saying things.

Did you give the polls? Are you a pollster... no. Then don't interpret them.

By the way I really am courious, they must have payed you well when you were training all those high up saudi types, is that top secret or something?
How was the compound? meet any average Joes on your travels, did they have degree's to? Sorry to be sarcastic but you did'ent back any of your training claims up

I never accepted any payment from the house of Saud. Your attempt to paint me as a biased paid off Saud lacky isn't going to work. Obviously you have never heard of the USMTM to Saudi. Read up on it... it's no secret, then you'll understand my level of involvement. Do you really think I'm a merc pilot? :lol2

Every single Joe I worked with not only had a degree but most of their's came from the US/UK and they spoke fluent english. It really was amazing.

What ever way you dice it, you were working for dodgy little dictatorship ran by a bunch of medievil princes, you saw what they wanted you to see, no more.

Again, I worked for and was paid by the US Navy, not the house of Saud. How would you know what I saw? I'm not a woman, I had free reign of the country.

Anyway we were talking about there army, motivation and leadership a decent NCO structure, and real commanders, not place men, Saudi has none of those.

The royal family is their officer and NCO corp. Unlike many ME countries Saudi is not senior officer heavy. I have worked with their command elements and they are competent. I have no idea about their enlisted army ranks but all they need to know is loyalty and following orders. It doesn't take a degree from Cambridge to be a grunt.

Yemen on the otherhand is a DISASTER. Your comments about them was the real reason I wanted to respond.

 

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