Arabian Nightmare For Iran

Strategy Page ^ | December 22, 2009

[myknowledge]

The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East made an observation that the Gulf Arab nations wished he hadn't. General David Petraeus noted that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force, and it's 80 F-16E fighters could probably quickly destroy the entire Iranian Air Force. The Gulf Arabs would prefer the Iranians to believe their own propaganda, that the Iranian military is much more powerful than it actually is. The Iranian Air Force is mainly a mighty force only in terms of Iranian propaganda. The Gulf Arabs don't want the Iranians to make a strong effort to upgrade their air force and air defenses. The Iranian myth is much better for the Gulf Arabs than Iranian military commanders who plan and prepare on the basis of what they really have.

The UAE occupies most of the western coast of the Persian Gulf, but has a population of less than three million and armed forces of only 65,000. There are 70 million Iranians, and about half a million of them are in the military. While the Iranian air force only has about 200 operational, and quite elderly, combat aircraft, sheer numbers can be encouraging to the Iranians. The UAE has a hundred, much more modern, warplanes, and it uses the training assistance from the U.S. Air Force, to provide a qualitative edge. The Americans also work with UAE commanders to figure out what kind of surprises the Iranians might try to pull. Arab nations fear the Iranians, who have dominated the region for thousands of years, and have a long history of coming up with imaginative tactics, and using them aggressively and often with success. Meanwhile, the Saudis have a larger air force than the UAE, and it's believed that the Iranians must have some kind of surprises planned, to deal with this imbalance in air power..

The UAE hopes to even things with one of the two most advanced versions of the F-16 (which are both in use by foreign air forces). The UAE has 80 "Desert Falcons" (the F-16E) which is optimized for air combat. It is a 22 ton aircraft based on the Block 52 model, but with an AESA (phased array) radar and lots of other additional goodies.

The U.S. F-16 is one of the most modified jet fighters in service. While most are still called the F-16C, there are actually six major mods, identified by block number (32, 40, 42, 50, 52, 60), plus the Israeli F-16I, which is a major modification of the Block 52. The other special version (the Block 60), for the UAE, is called the F-16E. The F-16D is a two seat trainer version of F-16Cs. The various block mods included a large variety of new components (five engines, four sets of avionics, five generations of electronic warfare gear, five radars and many other mechanical, software, cockpit and electrical mods.) The F-16 is the most numerous post-Cold War jet fighter, with over 4,200 built, and more in production. During The Cold War, Russia built over 10,000 MiG-21s, and the U.S over 5,000 F-4s, but since then warplane manufacturing has plummeted about 90 percent. But since the end of the Cold War, the F-16 has been popular enough to keep the production lines going.

[myknowledge]

Combat Aircraft Order of Battle - Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF)

82 x F-15C/D Eagle

72 x Eurofighter Typhoon (6 delivered)

71 x F-15S Strike Eagle

110 x F-5A/B Freedom Fighter

111 x Panavia Tornado ADV/IDS

Total: 446 combat aircraft

Combat Aircraft Order of Battle - United Arab Emirates Air Force (UAEAF)

79 x F-16E/F Desert Falcon

68 x Dassault Mirage 2000

Total: 141 combat aircraft

Combat Aircraft Order of Battle - Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF)

20 x F-14A Tomcat

40 x MiG-29A/UB Fulcrum

47 x F-4D/E Phantom II

11 x Dassault Mirage F1EQ

65 x F-5A/B/E/F Freedom Fighter/Tiger II

24 x Su-24MK Fencer

13 x Su-25K Frogfoot

16 x HESA Saeqeh

24 x F-7M Airguard

Total: 260 combat aircraft

Now we can clearly see who has the most superior air force of the three. Together, the RSAF and UAEAF have the edge in quantity and quality. They can wipe the IRIAF from the skies in A2A combat.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413592/posts

[historyrepeatz]

Is the “extra wide” fuselage for additional fuel?

[myknowledge]

The conformal fuel tanks (CFTs) are for additional fuel.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Their Mirages are their best strike platforms-equipped with the Black Shahine cruise missiles.

And the UAE is looking for a customised Rafale variant-up to 60 of them.

[Joe Boucher]

very good, informative post myknnowledge,
Thanks

Things ok in Sydney?

[Sherman Logan]

The Americans also work with UAE commanders to figure out what kind of surprises the Iranians might try to pull. Arab nations fear the Iranians, who have dominated the region for thousands of years, and have a long history of coming up with imaginative tactics, and using them aggressively and often with success.

No clairvoyance required. The Iranians would have to kill the Arab planes on the ground, as happened at Pearl and in the Six Day War.

[SolidWood]

The Iranian Air Force is one of the few air forces with battle-hardened veterans who actually participated in air-to-air combat... and the only one which did it succesfully for 8 years against an internationally pumped up Iraq... with increasing material and logistical difficulties.

The Gulf Arab “militaries” are mercenary forces consisting of South Asian slaves. The Arabs actually don’t lift a finger.

Odds are that if the shit hits the fan, the Arabs will ask us to fight for them. They will foot the bill at best.

Buying modern toys isn’t enough.

[G8 Diplomat]

Yes the UAE *can* defeat Iran—technologically, anyway—but *will* they? No.

The Gulf Arabs want Israel to do it so that Israel gets hit with the retaliation from Hamas, Hezbollah, & Syria, and they don’t have to do anything except sit back and watch their two regional enemies become crippled and exhausted.

[myknowledge]

But sooner or later, they may have to join the fight if their oil installations are damaged or destroyed in an Iranian missile strike.

[PapaBear3625]

Screw the numbers games. A fight will be won by the side that is willing to engage the enemy, and that is the big unknown until show time.

[myknowledge]

Problem is, the veteran pilots of the Iran-Iraq war are either dead or retired by now, so the current generation of IRIAF pilots do not have the same level of training as their Gulf Arab counterparts, have older aircraft and no combat experience.

The UAEAF pilots are trained by the United States (same country who supplied the F-16 Desert Falcons). I bet my 2 cents that they would prevail over their Iranian counterparts in A2A combat.

[SolidWood]

I bet my 2 cents that they would prevail over their Iranian counterparts in A2A combat.

Maybe if these mercenaries are paid enough by their Arab owners. ;o)

BTW what's the point of posting an oversized UAE roundel?

[myknowledge]

Maybe if these mercenaries are paid enough by their Arab owners.

The mercenaries are PAF (Pakistan Air Force) pilots.

BTW what's the point of posting an oversized UAE roundel?

I wanted to post it, but couldn't decide whether to shrink it or not.

[SolidWood]

The mercenaries are PAF (Pakistan Air Force) pilots.

Exactly. So why should Pakistani pilots sacrifice themselves for the Arabs Emirates versus Iran? Nice pay checks? One can't run a real army with a bunch of hired foreigners.

Arab militaries (especially conventional ones) are a joke, even with material superiority. Israel (more than once) and Iran (vs. Iraq's increasingly materially superior army) proved it. And these wars were against REAL Arab armies with something remotely like esprit de corps and patriotism.

The UAE has neither. It's the most faux place I have ever been to. A tiny, dense clan of tribalist Arabs who lucked it out by sitting on oil and selling themselves to Britain for 100 years. Too lazy and incompetent to run even a construction site. Now they have a foreign population of over 80-90 % (no UAE citizens) which are either slave labor from South/SE Asia or European/Lebanese/American white collar workers in their offices.

It's a question of mettle and mentality. Not material and money. The UAE may have the money for technology to face Iranian threats, but they don't have the mettle or mentality to do it.

The Golf Club Arabs won't take unneccesairy risks. Bad for their bank accounts.

They will secretly beg us and Israel to save their rears from the naughty Ajam Iranians.

After Israel takes out the nukes, we (ideally) should make sure that there is sooner or later a regime change in Iran. And drill here, drill now. Then the Golf Club Arabs can pound sand our built hotels out of it.

[odds]

UAE will not attack Iran, nor do they have the Will or the “green light” to do so. Like someone said, they’d rather have USA or Israel militarily attack Iran. Naïve to assume otherwise, unless UAE is “prepd up” and backed up by Others.

UAE is essentially a Western economic Sheikhdom, with superfluous military capability, and Lots of money at stake for its own survival at best, never mind the ghettos for south east Asians there. The West particularly the British have got serious investments there too since the Brits had to let go of Hong Kong after its expiration.

Israel was on the side of the Iranian (Mullah) regime during Iran-Iraq War.

Israel according to some accounts even persuaded America to sell weapons to Khomeinist (IRI) regime, during Reagan Admin, which later became known as Iran-Contras. In fact, I heard years ago that the Islamic Republic reformists such as his Grandness Ayatollah Montazeri was one of those Islamic Republic Reformists who questioned (disputed with) Khomeini about Khomeini’s acceptance of Israel’s and America’s military help to IRI, through third parties. Go Figure!

Naturally, the 8 yr Iran-Iraq war was a draw and stalemate. It just weakened both countries. Only difference is that Saddam was got rid of in 2003, and Mullahs regime still continues having the benefit of seeing one of his enemy (Saddam) gone.

Broadly, I agree with G8 Diplomat: “The Gulf Arabs want Israel to do it so that Israel gets hit with the retaliation from Hamas, Hezbollah, & Syria, and they don’t have to do anything except sit back and watch their two regional (presumably) enemies become crippled and exhausted.”