Saudi Arabia vs Iran, no other countries directly involved

[JulianWilliams]

Who would win? Which of these two countries have a better military? I guess a lot of the fighting would happen in Iraq, each country being joined by their local allies in that area, and across the sea. I don't think Saudi Arabia's armed forces are any good. They seem to be trained more to keep the local population in check than to fight any kind of war.

 

[Redheart]

It would be hard to tell and definitely the sort of conflict that would negatively impact the whole world. Anyway, I'd lay my money on Saudi Arabia winning the war they "have one of the best trained and well-equipped armies in the world."

But it's one war which never can end.

 

[JulianWilliams]

I think you're giving way too much credit to Saudi Arabia's army. Iraq's army was supposed to be the same after the US has sped gazillions to equip and train them yet look how rubbish they turned out to be. Also, Saudi Arabia has two armed forces, designed to keep each other in check. They're armed forces are designed to keep control of their own population.

 

[UAE]

I think you're giving way too much credit to Saudi Arabia's army. Iraq's army was supposed to be the same after the US has sped gazillions to equip and train them yet look how rubbish they turned out to be. Also, Saudi Arabia has two armed forces, designed to keep each other in check. They're armed forces are designed to keep control of their own population.

I would like to hear more from you about the Saudi Armed forces. Its either you are confused or me cant get what are you saying.

To able to pass a judgment, you need to know the structure of the Saudi army and what type of weapons they possess how many and the quality of their training.

I haven't heard about two armies in one country! Also note that the Saudi Army equipment are not all US made nor their they get their training in the US. Another thing to note that Saudi Arabia is very rich country and the US has paid NADA in equipping or training Saudi Arabia.

Royal Saudi army:

RS land forces
RS navy
RS air force

The national guard serve as homeland security and is completely separated from the army.

Saudi land forces equipments

US-Made
French- made
Chinese-Made
Russian- Made
German-Made
Brazil-Made
South Africa-Made
Saudi-Made
Turkish-Made

Saudi Arabia Navy

French-Made
Saudi-Made
Russian-Made

Saudi Arabia air force

Eurofighter Typhoon-UK
Tornado-UK
F-15-US
AWACS-Sweden
AWCAS-US

Saudi Arabia training

Saudi acadimes for military training.

Navy- King Fahad Naval academy-Saudi Arabia

Other joint trainings-France-Pakistan

Mountain warfare- King Salman academy.

Other joint trainings-France-Pakistan

Land forces

King Abdualziz academy
King Khalid academy

Air force

King Faisal Academy
King Faisal academy-London-UK
Columbus Air base-US

 

[zenfive]

Agreed, I think Saudi Arabia definitely has a well equipped, diversified arsenal and military personnel. And I've read news reports about them increasing their spending on military arms, buying the latest equipment and developing their capabilities, so they definitely seem to be miles better than the "trained" Iraqi forces. They also are among the biggest spenders for their military budget, with $67 billion in 2013 (9.3% of their GDP)(Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook 2013), with Iran only spending $17.7 billion in the same year (according to International Institute for Strategic Studies).

However Iran are no strangers to developing military capabilities either, aside from their ever so controversial nuclear program, they are in the top 10 in the world in terms of active military personnel, and a lot more than Saudi Arabia, from what I've been able to tell.

It would definitely be a large scale war, and one that I would not want to see.

 

[gmckee1985]

Certainly this is something we can hopefully avoid. Each country has it's strengths and weaknesses. Iran is certainly a threat because they are in the midst of developing nuclear weapons. That'd certainly give them more stature and power on the world stage. I don't like to deal in hypotheticals, because there's so much we don't know about both nations militarily.