Who Would Win In A Saudi Arabia vs. Iran Showdown?

[ultron]

I don't think either can invade the other. This isn't the times of the Arab caliphate taking on the Persian empire.

 

[Al-Andalus]

KSA/GCC has a much bigger economy (a key factor here), many more resources, many more powerful allies (GCC alone would defeat Iran in a war quite clearly let alone the fact that most of the Arab and Muslim world would support KSA economically, militarily and politically), much better and more numerous equipment and KSA is 0.5 times bigger and the GCC almost twice as big as Iran in terms of geography.

Also this conflict will inevitably lead to an Arab-Persian conflict where Arabs outnumber Persians at least by a ratio of 7 to 1. Let alone an Sunni-Shia conflict where Shias are outnumbered by a ratio of 7 to 1 as well.

Iran could not even defeat 4 times smaller and 2.5 times less populous Iraq that faced uprisings in the North and South which although heavily armed, had nowhere near the combined arsenal of the GCC today, economic power or allies.

As for missiles, please don't joke. Many of those claims have never been proven on a battlefield and are dubious at best (unless proven otherwise) besides the Royal Saudi Arabian Strategic Missile Force is one of the most developed in the region if not the world. KSA/GCC is also going to upgrade that part of their armies significantly in the nearby future which will render any reverse engineering and Soviet-era/North Korean junk useless very quickly. Good luck trying to win a war by launching missiles (LOL).

As for destroying oil/gas etc. facilities, that works both ways and do you think it is harder or easier to feed 80 million people or 25 million people in case such a thing happens and we out of nowhere (falsely moreover) pretend that KSA/GCC will have no friends/allies/partners who would aid them immediately? I mean the non-oil/gas sector of KSA/GCC is almost bigger than the entire economy of Iran.

Remember any attack on a GCC member state by an outside party OBLIGATES all other GCC states to aid that GCC state which is under attack. Therefore to talk about only KSA vs Iran is moronic at best. Or some straits being closed (lol) off forgetting that the GCC has access to 4 seas directly (Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and from there very easy/quick access to nearby Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean). No seas/waters will be blocked whatsoever by Iran. They have no such ability.

Anyway such a war will not happen for obvious reasons. The world powers will act if such a war erupts. Not in anyones interest. However if it happened KSA/GCC would win without a doubt. We have never lost a single war to Farsis The same can't be said the other way around, lol.

A joke of a thread actually.

 

[AmirPatriot]

As far as I am aware, the most accurate Iranian missile types are Fateh-110D, Khalij Fars and Hormuz with CEP of 10 - 50 m on average. However, these missiles are relatively few in numbers.

Who says so? Iran claims accuracy of less than 10 metres. When you need to target something like an aircraft carrier sailing at more than 30 knots, you need pinpoint accuracy. These weapons aren't for show, you know. Besides, there's also the Fateh-313 and Zolfiqar - both developments of the Fateh 110, with ranges of 500 km and 700 km respectively - as well as the Emad I have already mentioned.

The rest are more like tools of intimidation

Well, I know why you are thinking this. Until very recently, that was Iran's strategy. To increase the range of our missiles to reach Israel, and produce them en masse to act as a deterrence. But having reached the range we need, the military leadership are now directing their attention to improving the accuracy of our missiles to use in an offensive manner rather than just a deterrence.

Do you carefully watch the footage you tend to cite?

Yes, and some of my

I don't see any missile striking that target on the ground even in stop motion.

Thats because it is slamming down on the target at several rates of mach, and the government likely isn't using high performance cameras for the publicity videos in order to maintain secrecy. Its also because you aren't carefully watching the footage I tend to cite A few months ago when this news came out I slowed down the video to 0.25 speed and carefully watched it. I managed to find 2 frames with the missile.

So please don't try to belittle our achievements by saying it was some sort of faked setup just for the cameras.

Taken from a report of CSIS

Which doesn't actually bring up any concrete objections, it actually sounds like it is trying to find excuses to put Iran down. Iran conducts regular tests and exercises, and "white suit" conditions are not specified.

How many produced so far?

Not publicly known. But in one of Iran's recent unveiling of the underground "missile cities", we saw pictures of it on TELs just a few months after we knew of its existence. Bear in mind that Iran often announces its military achievements years after it actually develops them for secrecy.

not expected to chase the target missile from behind

Why do you keep saying this? I knew full well how a SAM/ABM works. But you should know that just because you are flying towards a target moving at a million miles an hour, doesn't mean you can hit it. Size limitations, cost, sophistication of sensors as well as intercept missile speed and manoeuvring capability all affect the ability to react to and intercept a ballistic missile. Also consider that sometimes the ballistic missile isn't aiming at the ABM, so the ABM has to get to the ballistic missile's vector.

And this is just the problem that outright speed creates. We haven't even talked about missiles that make erratic movements to confuse defences, as well as decoys, multiple warheads...

I am telling you something that a developer will not advertise in its marketing campaign

What??? This is Lockheed Martin we are talking about. They are a private defence contractor. They want money and money only. They developed the financial scam that is the F-35. If it had a remote chance of taking out an ICBM, believe me, they would say it.

under the right circumstances

Under the right circumstances Stephen Hawking could knock out Connor McGregor, but those circumstances aren't exactly numerous.

Exact number of batteries fielded?

OK, the Russian and Iranian governments know, but its not public knowledge. I just wanted to use that pic for a long time...

Unless Iran achieves (and fields) a mass precision strike capability.

No. Not even then. No war can be won by a single weapon. It is a fundamentally wrong statement, not just because of capability.

Pakistan is not fond of wasting its missiles in this manner.

Because Iran and Pakistan's military doctrines are fundamentally different.

a nuclear response is expected only in the worst-case scenario

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction

That is not a large number, my friend.

It is but a portion of Iran's numbers. My point was that we mass manufacture these. Its not like Iraq where the US only went after the TELs. Iran can actually make TELs on a large scale, and replenish losses.

And in case of war, would Iran position all of them in a single place?

No. Why is that relevant?

 

[Ceylal]

As for destroying oil/gas etc. facilities, that works both ways

Brainiac, Saudi oil has a high content of sulfur and prior to shipment they have to condition it to remove the sulfur. The Ras et tanura treatment centers has several towers that transform the sulfur into Hydrogen Sulfate for easy disposal and further use. It shouldn't be hard for you, as a student of chemistry, so you claim, the devastation that can cause the H2S in contact of oxygen, if those towers are destroyed! which can be easily done, by Iran..
For the Ambar station that pump oil over the mountain to Red sea , in the case of a direct hit,all that oil in the pipeline cascading, from 700 meters high to the bottom, the whole area will be flooded with heavy oil and imagine the consequences on the area...,Iran's Bandar Abbes refinery and other other petroleum installations are within reach to the Sauds, but not as vulnerable as one might think..Irak with its Mig 25, couldn't do diddly in a time where Iran didn't have a sophisticated air defences..
My money is on IRAN...and forget about your Arab friends or the GCC or the the Muslims states...Beside being incapable fighters, they will sit and watch the destruction of kingdom of doom , while enjoying their mint tea..

 

[OTTOMAN]

Brainiac, Saudi oil has a high content of sulfur and prior to shipment they have to condition it to remove the sulfur. The Ras et tanura treatment centers has several towers that transform the sulfur into Hydrogen Sulfate for easy disposal and further use. It shouldn't be hard for you, as a student of chemistry, so you claim, the devastation that can cause the H2S in contact of oxygen, if those towers are destroyed! which can be easily done, by Iran..
For the Ambar station that pump oil over the mountain to Red sea , in the case of a direct hit,all that oil in the pipeline cascading, from 700 meters high to the bottom, the whole area will be flooded with heavy oil and imagine the consequences on the area...,Iran's Bandar Abbes refinery and other other petroleum installations are within reach to the Sauds, but not as vulnerable as one might think..Irak with its Mig 25, couldn't do diddly in a time where Iran didn't have a sophisticated air defences..
My money is on IRAN...and forget about your Arab friends or the GCC or the the Muslims states...Beside being incapable fighters, they will sit and watch the destruction of kingdom of doom , while enjoying their mint tea..

Do you have picture of those towers?

 

[Barhos]

Who Would Win In A Saudi Arabia vs. Iran Showdown?

I think the simple answer should be that they will both be losers, as a matter of fact they are. As Boris Johnson said awhile back that the leaders of the region and specifically KSA and Iran lack a visionary leadership, but he was Shut Up by the gov to avoid humiliating their ally(KSA) publicly. The tesnse and hostile relations between these 2 countries is one of the main reasons for what we see in the Middle East.