I don’t think Saudi Arabia HAS 20K tanks, much less crews for them.
Exactly! Where do these numbers come from? They sound Biblical.
I think the author added up the military equipment list of all the participating countries and not the equipment that will be deployed for the exercise!
There is probably a lot of old T-54/55 in that count.
20,000 tanks is something like 50-100 armored divisions, an order of magnitude more than the entire world has. Maybe 20,000 personnel assigned to armored or cavalry units, implying 200-500 tanks?
Nor do they have 2,500 combat aircraft. There are only five major air bases in Saudi, and I never saw anywhere near five hundred F-15s at any of them.
Combine everything on tracks from all the Gulf countries and the African countries mentioned and the numbers would look very sizeable. But Pakistan’s share would still represent more than half of whatever number they can, on paper, muster. Problem, however, is getting those resources across the Arabian Sea past Iran and into the Gulf would present some genuine logistical “issues”. The “civil war” in Syria is a potential trigger for a general Sunni on Shia conflagration, which in turn could bring in bigger players. And the Kerry / Obama policy has been to feed that fire.
“I don’t think Saudi Arabia HAS 20K tanks, much less crews for them.”
Yea, that was Cold War levels in Europe. It REALLY stuck out...makes all the numbers non-credible.
Perhaps they count Toyota Technicals as tanks out there.
I thought 20,000 tanks sounded wrong.
“I don’t think Saudi Arabia HAS 20K tanks, much less crews for them.”
No poop, Sherlock. Maybe 300 or so, which is still A LOT for a 3rd world shitehole:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Saudi_Air_Force
Not to mention, as you point out, good luck with them having that many competent warcraft drivers.
And about a 1000 tanks (not 20,000), which is still a lot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabian_Army#Tanks
Once again, unlikely that they have that many skilled crews.
Whoever wrote the article is a gold-plated eejit or simply an ignorant propagandist who thinks the rest of the world is as stupid as he is.
You are ight...and the title of the article is not accurate.
This is an exercise involving many nations. If Turkey, Jordan, Chad, the Sudan, Pakistan, and others all participate as they say, then they could get to the numbers indicated.
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But 20,000 tanks is still a huge number to try and reach even in that case...much less to organize and then logistically support in any way.
We shall see what actually becomes of this “plan.”
Around a thousand battle tanks. Add another 3,000 or so from Egypt, and what other allies have, you're correct I'm sure. However this is the media, and I suspect they include fighting vehicles as "tanks", which adds another 4 or 5 thousand for the Saudis, probably upwards of 6 thousand for Egypt depending how you distinguish a fighting vehicle from a personnel carrier. That gets them in the ballpark, especially with other allies. Are they really deploying them, significant if they are. The 2,500 aircraft might be exaggerated.
I agree. Someone is delusional and/or fibbin' here, lol.
That’s the first thing that struck me as well.