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Subject: Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East
InterArmaEnimSilent    1/20/2006 11:04:01 AM
With all this talk about another War in the Middle East

I just would like your opinion on the strength of Middle Eastern Militaries.

This will include everything. From Air Forces, modern technology, amount of reserves, armored formations, force projection, naval and aerial power, training, special forces, etc.

In my view,

1 - Israel
2 - Turkey
3 - Egypt
4 - Saudi Arabia
5 - Jordan
6 - Oman
7 - Iran
8 - UAE
9 - Syria
10 - Kuwait

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Yimmy    RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East   1/20/2006 11:06:21 AM
You put Oman and Jordan over Iran?
 
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InterArmaEnimSilent    RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East   1/20/2006 11:09:24 AM
both jordan and oman have modern western technology in fact, oman is the only country in the world which has F-16 block 60 Fighters
 
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Yimmy    RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East   1/20/2006 11:30:08 AM
Yes well, when you are talking about the numbers involved with Oman and Iran, I bet against the Western technology.
 
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ProDemocracy    RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East   1/20/2006 12:28:13 PM
1 - Israel 2 - Turkey 3 - Egypt 4 - Saudi Arabia 5 - Jordan 6 - Oman 7 - Iran 8 - UAE 9 - Syria 10 - Kuwait ---------------------------------- I would say the following: 1 - Israel 2 - Turkey 3 - Egypt 3.5 Iran 4 - Saudi Arabia 5 - Jordan 6 - Oman 8 - UAE 9 - Syria 10 - Kuwait
 
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GOP    RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East   1/20/2006 12:31:45 PM
Here is my vote: 1. Israel 2. Turkey 3. Egypt. 4. Saudi Arabia. 5. Iran 6. Jordan 7. UAE 8. Oman 9. Syria 10. Kuwait unranked...Iraq (lack of assets, dependable leadership, and funds)
 
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Ehran    RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East   1/20/2006 12:56:29 PM
are we sure turkey should really be considered part of the middle east? i'd suggest that jordan should rank above saudi. saudis have some sweet toys but the jordanian army is a lot more professional imho.
 
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Horsesoldier    RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East   1/20/2006 1:36:02 PM
>>In my view, 1 - Israel 2 - Turkey 3 - Egypt 4 - Saudi Arabia 5 - Jordan 6 - Oman 7 - Iran 8 - UAE 9 - Syria 10 - Kuwait<< In terms of actual forces on the ground in the Middle East . . . 1) The United States 2) Israel 3) The United Kingdom And after that a bunch of militarily incompetent (or at best semi-competent) states who would, at best, resemble a repeat of the 1991 Gulf War if they ran afoul of #1-3. I'm not counting Turkey as part of the Middle East in this regard, parenthetically.
 
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InterArmaEnimSilent    saudis buying the euro fighters   1/20/2006 3:43:18 PM
how many euro fighters are the saudis buying? and isnt that a danger to israel that if some coup occurs in saudi arabia that all those euro fighters could be used against israel
 
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kane    RE:Manpower   1/20/2006 3:57:01 PM
I think numbers are important and israel's population is very low so it can't support her troops if they move into arabian deserts.. +as a turk i'm very proud of seeing my country on the second place but what is the power of Oman and Jordan +is Saudi Arabia that much strong?? wow i learned too many things.
 
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InterArmaEnimSilent    explaination of my rankings   1/20/2006 7:26:56 PM
Israel's current standing force is around 180,000 With Reserves, it can go up to 600,000 Israel usually faces a war on multiple fronts and its biggest assets is its vast quantity of Armored Personnel Carriers which can shift entire divisions from one sector to another and which makes this a very lethal advantage against its Enemies. Israel has the most powerful Air force in the Middle East and has one of the most highly trained Armies in the World. The doctrine of Israel's Armed forces is an offensive Air Force and both defensive Army and Navy. The threat will always come from an arab agressor launching an attack on Israel. Israel's land army has limited offensive capability but the big achilles heel for its arab neighbours as all of their capitals are just a couple of hours drive from Israel. Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, and Amman are all with in reach of a limited ground offensive of Israel's Army. As they will chose to defend its capitals, any Israeli offensive will be met with stiff resistence. As a result Israel never really planned an Army with a long range force projection such as USA or UK. Turkey on the other hand also has a higly disciplined and powerful military and guard's NATO's right flank and is also the only NATO country to border terrorist sponsoring nations of Syria and Iran and also Iraq. It has a powerful fleet of Gunships, and the 2nd strongest Air Force in the middle East and also a very large Tank force. The thing that propels Turkey to number 2 is the excellent training and doctrine of warfare which is on NATO standards. Egypt has a large Army and is amply supplied by the Americans but will never be as technologically strong as the Israelis. To avoid war, USA has deliberately supplied the Egyptians with weaponry which is slightly below the technological advancement of the Israelis. Egypt does have the largest man power pool of any Arab country in the region and has fought many wars with Israel and has shaken out many flaws in its doctrine of War. It also has a good special forces which have fought numerous battles with Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia has a lot of expensive toys. It just orderd Euro Fighters and a large fleet of F-15, F-16 and British Tornadoes. But as such, it lacks training, discipline, doctrine of warfare and capable generals to lead its forces into battles. Its special forces are just plain terrible. But it does have a lot of expensive toys which does give it a slight edge in Battle over other countries and also Saudi Arabia is gradually improving. Oman is the same situaion. A former British colony, it buys a lot of british military hardware. It has British Tanks, British Warrior Armored Personnel Carriers, F-16 block 60 fighters, the most advanced F-16 fighters in the world. Its special forces are being trained by the British SAS and as a lot of gun boats from Britain as well and a very strong Anti-Aircraft Defense system. Iran has a very large Army of over 1,000,000 men and thats it. Its Air-Force is obselete although it has a few modern Mig fighters. The US F-14 tomcats are almost inoperable. Most of its Navy comes from Russian Gunboats. It makes its own Tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers which according to Jane Magazine are nothing more than a souped up T-55 Russian Tanks. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards are nothing more than the Feyadeen of Saadam Hussein and the Republican Guard. The Iranian army is woefully obselete. It does possess a lot of anti-tank and anti-air rockets but that threat can be easily neutralized. Iran's special forces are dedicated and athletically fitness wise are better than most middle eastern special forces but lack the equipment. Iran's Missiles, the Shabab are nothing more than a reverse engineered No-Dong Missile and is woefully inaccurate. It does not have a GPS guidance system and relies on mathematical longitutional/latitutional input to hit its targets. It does not have the capability to launch tactical strikes on troop concentrations which are moving but only on large stationary targets such as cities. UAE is a small country with a small population and as such its Army is very small. It does possess a lethal air force, but relies totally on the British/American for security when it comes to dealing with any land battles. It also has a good special forces squad which as Navy Seal and British SAS training and a good coastal guard which mostly catch illegal immigrants than terrorits. Syria has the same problem like Iran. But unlike Iran, Syria has no industry in which to manufacture its own weaponry. It still has outdated tanks from the Yom-Kippur War, an Air-Force in which only 10 Planes out of 500 could present a threat to Israel and the rest are totally obselete. Its ground forces due to high levels of corruption are terribly trained and led. At the moment, Syria besides playing the Hezbollah/Terrorist card presents no significant threat to Israel. Even outgoing Israel Defense Minister, Moshe Yalon said that Israel could defend it self even if the Golan heights are given back to Syria. Kuwait has a small Army due to its small population. Saudi Arabia has said that it will come to Kuwait's aid should it be attacked by any foreign country. Kuwait's small army is heavily armed with British and American weaponry but yet again the training, leadership qualities are missing.
 
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kane    RE:explaination of my rankings   1/20/2006 7:54:44 PM
thanks for the explanation by the way how do you know all these?
 
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InterArmaEnimSilent    RE:Ranking of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East   1/20/2006 8:03:22 PM
i download and read a lot of defense analysis papers from Jane Magazine, Global Security, Brookings Institute, The Jamestown foundation most of these think tanks are american so they are biased but they do provide a good idea of the current capabilities of world militaries
 
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Zballs       3/1/2007 2:36:36 PM
Your nuts  Here it goes:

1. Israel (with nukes)
2. Turkey
3. Iran
4. (Israel without nukes), Egypt
5. Saudi Arabia
6. Syria
7. Hizballah
8. Jordan
9. Oman
10. UAE
 
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french stratege       3/1/2007 5:28:31 PM
There is no doubt that Israel is the current most powerfull country in middle east followed by Turkey.
Now for the third place we have 3 contenders:
Egypt, Saudia Arabia and Iran.
Saudia Arabia and Egypt have a good set of modern weapons especially on fighters compare to Iran.
But fighters are not everything if you have a limited amount of ammuntions and below average personnel and in the case of Saudis, few number and lack of commitment of a great part of their soldiers who do not train hard and it is the least we can say.
In fact .Saudia Arabia and Egypt and a below average army for proficiency and are completely dependant on western nations.I have numerous first rate exemples for lack of commitment, pure incompetence and bad training and Saudis beat everybody..From french officers who have trained them.
On the contrary Iran have a professional army (for competencies I mean as it is also a draft army), dedication and they have their own equipement.They have numbers and assymetric means to compensate their weaknesses on some high tech equipement.
I would put without a doubt Iran above Egypt and Saudis and they will widen the gap in the coming decade if nothing is done to stop them.
Saudis could hold maximum 2 weeks facing Iranian alone.
 
 
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ProDemocracy    much more realistic   3/1/2007 5:39:33 PM
The list below looks much more realistic than the previous ones.  Remember Iraq had both western (French) and Soviet technology and American advisors and it still took them 8 years to beat Iran (and they barely won and very nearly lost).  France and the USSR gave Iraq massive amounts of weapons.  Also, back then with the USSR's tentative loyalty to Iraq and Iran's obvious issues with the US, Iran wasn't getting weapons from too many sources (Iran-contra weapons weren't enough to supply a whole army). 
 
Now, China and Russia are more than happy to oblige Iran with whatever they want...Russia, for influence, and China, for energy.  And flush with oil revenue, Iran can pay cash!  You take the kind of overwhelming numbers that Iran vs Oman or Jordan would have and it would be even more difficult to keep Iran in check than it was for Iraq.  I agree with zballs list - only change I might make (although not really in a position to really argue it - just more from what I have read in general) would be to put Hizbullah at the very bottom of the list.  I would imagine Jordan, Oman and UAE, with their western weapons, would be able to subdue Hisbullah if necessary. 

Your nuts  Here it goes:

1. Israel (with nukes)

2. Turkey

3. Iran

4. (Israel without nukes), Egypt

5. Saudi Arabia

6. Syria

7. Hizballah

8. Jordan

9. Oman

10. UAE



 
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