Reuters
Daniel R. DePetris, National Interest: 5 Ways Saudi Arabia Could Crush Iran (or Any Enemy) in a War
The backbone of the Saudi air force is the F-15 fighter: a platform that the United States itself has used for generations and a plane that is capable of carrying out the kinds of short and long-distance air sorties that may be required for a mission to succeed. According to public sources, Saudi Arabia possesses about 238 F-15 fighter planes—including a 2010 U.S. sale to Riyadh consisting of 84 F-15SA’s, Boeing Corp’s newest F-15 variant. This particular model is especially helpful for the Saudis, who are now engaged in two conflicts simultaneously. The plane’s range of 2,400 miles is particularly impressive and allows the Kingdom’s aircrews to travel to and from northern Iraq and southern Yemen without having to rely upon mid-air refueling aircraft to arrive at a target. There is no question that Saudi pilots appreciate this type of capability as they search for Houthi targets in Yemen and ISIL targets in Syria.
For Saudi Arabia, the conservative Gulf kingdom whose number one priority in the region is to keep the status quo, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that the entire Middle East is on the fire. Indeed, if Saudi Arabia resembled a giant mansion in the middle of the neighborhood, the rest of the street would be littered with abandoned houses and empty lots. In other words, the neighborhood outside the Kingdom doesn’t look good at the moment, and King Salman bin Abdulaziz knows it.
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WNU Editor: The above article was first posted in 2015. As to what is my take .... I am skeptical of the above report. The Saudis have spent tens of billions on their military, and they still have not been able to defeat the Houthis in Yemen. So much for their ability to crush any enemy in a war.
8 comments:
aren't you confusing conventional warfare (saudi arabia vs iran) with counter insurgency (saudi arabia vs rebels)? while any warfare is realistically a blend, I thought it is my duty as annoying jackass to point it out :P
" I am skeptical of the above report. "
I agree. As others have said "Infantry is the queen of battle."
Dear Anon, the self style annoying Jackass
Other sites have 5 to 15 jackasses. So over a decade I while I might get irate, it bothers me way less than before. Especially, when you are so lame.
If it helps you to sleep at night by calling the Houthis rebels as if they have no infantry then have at it.
Nature is marvelous!
an animal or human, filled with venom that is poisonous does not injure or kill himself but crawls about on belly to spew more of its noxious bile
Dear Mr. Lapides,
You cannot act on any other way, but the way you do. It makes you limited, boring & predictable.
I see you paused in your copying & pasting nudie pictures for a minute to scold me.
I posted a comment agreeing with WNU. I checked back and saw there was a new post. Looking at it now I see that Anon's post is timestamped before mine, so I see that his post was 1st before mine.
However, I am so used to getting attacked my one of the 4 or 5 Anons, I thought he was replying to my simple straight forward post.
Now on to you.
1) Seeing as how there are only 1282 or 1393 protein folds, nature does not seem that wonderful (about 78 of them only occur in viruses or so it was written in a story I read ).
2) When I referred Anon as a jackass, I added it as an appositive and in the appositive, I said he was the self-styled jackass (I missed the 'd' in self-styled).
3) To one or maybe two of the Anons, I no apology whatsoever. To the conservative or middle of the road Anon I might, but given that it is so hard to tell the Anons apart except statistically sentence by sentence, it is not going to happen.
The Saudis experience v/s Yemen suggests they had better think very carefully before taking on Iran.
The Ansruallah Movement arn't "rebels".
When Saleh joined up with the Houthi's, to form the Ansruallah Movement, Yemen's Special Forces, the Yemeni Navy, the Yemeni Airforce, the Republican Guard, and 2/3rds of the Yemeni Army went with him.
While the Houthi's in the North are formidable Light Infantry, holding the al Jauf and Ramayah Governants on the Saudi border against Saudi Armoured Formations and raiding into Saudi Arabia itself,
( the Govornates are mountainous, have few and poor road networks, and the Yardzi villages that form the backbone of the Houthi Movement, are built like stone fortress's on the high ground),
the former Yemeni Military, ( tanks, artillary, rocket forces, AA forces, anti-shipping forces) hold the line in Marib and Shawah Govornates, backed up with Houthi's acting as raiders and a patrolling force.
The Saudi/GCC coelition and their mercenaries managed to take much of what was, South Yemen, but only by getting al Quida in Yemen and some of the southern tribes onside. The pro-Hadi remmanents of the Yemeni Military however, got badly mauled in the South, by the local tribes. Since Hadi's arrest and confinement they have been deemed unreliable and are under "house arrest" in barracks in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi/GCC alliance with al Quida and the Southern Tribes has not gone "well". While the UAE took the port and city of Aden, al Quida and the Tribal's quickly drove the UAE and their mercenaries back to the port and have divided control of the city, and it's lucrative black markets, taxation and extortion amongst themselves.
Away from the Coast, the Saudi's as well had to rely on the tribals and al-Quida, to take towns and villages along the main highway, and after several "ugly" incidents, (SANG soldiers beheaded or burned alive), has ceded control of the "liberated" areas to al-Quida or the resident tribal group.
The Conventional war has been "stalled" roughly along the former border between North and South Yemen for a year now, and along the Northern Border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the Houthi Light Infantry have inflicted such losses on the SANG that they don't even try to mount offensives anymore, they just try to push back Houthi raids into Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis have no will to fight. They may have all the latest and greatest equipment in the world, but they will outdo the Iraqis in abandoning it and running away in a real battle.
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