Secretary of the strand

In one fell swoop, half of Saudi oil production has been halted, black gold prices have risen in an unprecedented way in world markets, and attention has once again turned to the Gulf region amid heightened tensions between the region's two major powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

While many hold their breath while waiting for the current escalation between the two countries to unfold, there are increasing signs and sometimes diverging on the imminent military confrontation between the two countries on the hot Gulf waters.

Given the unprecedented tension in the region in general and between Saudi Arabia and Iran in particular, many question the military balance of power between the two countries, and the capabilities and fortunes of each of them to resolve any coming military confrontation in his favor.

In the following report, we shed light on the military capabilities and balance of power between the two countries in terms of human and logistic capabilities, based on the latest data published by the US website "Global Firepower", which specializes in monitoring the strength of armies around the world.

World Ranking
Iran leads Saudi Arabia in the global rankings of Global Firepower, ranking 14th out of 137 countries, while Saudi Arabia ranks 25th globally.

The rankings and rankings of countries are based on more than 50 criteria for determining the strength index of armies, including the success of missions, the strength and efficiency of military force, techniques of fighter aircraft and tanks, naval and other equipment, financial and human resources, geographical location, economic situation, natural resources, and level. Public health, the number of active and reserve forces, and also depends on the military data for each country on the declared military capabilities.

Manpower
The disparity between the two countries appears to be high in terms of human potential, according to the site, where the population of Iran is more than 83 million people, while the population of Saudi Arabia slightly more than 33 million people, and the number of manpower in Iran more than 47 million, while less than 18 million in Saudi Arabia.

The number of qualified manpower for military service is about 40 million in Iran, while the number is slightly more than 16 million in Saudi Arabia.

In terms of numerical strength and the number of soldiers and reservists, the total number of members of the Saudi army in service about 230 thousand people, and did not provide any data on the number of reservists in the Saudi army.

The Iranian army has about 523,000 troops in addition to 350,000 in reserve, one of the largest in the Middle East.

The defense budget in Saudi Arabia is about 70 billion dollars, while less than 7 billion dollars in Iran, while the external debt of Iran about 8 billion dollars, the external debt of Saudi Arabia to about 205 billion dollars.

Air Force
Saudi Arabia outperforms Iran in the number of military aircraft, with 848 military aircraft, while Iran has only 509 military aircraft.

Saudi Arabia has 244 interceptor fighter jets, while Iran has only 142. Iran, in contrast, has more military transport aircraft than Saudi Arabia, with 89 military transport planes, while Saudi Arabia has only 49.

Tanks and cannons
Site numbers and data give Iran significant progress over Saudi Arabia in the number of tanks, where it has 1634, compared to 1,062 tanks to Saudi Arabia, but Riyadh is significantly outperformed in the number of armored combat vehicles, where Saudi Arabia has 11100 vehicles, while Iran does not exceed 2345.

Saudi Arabia also outperforms self-propelled cannons, with 705 of them, compared to 570 for Iran, but the latter has 2128 artillery trailers versus 1818 for Saudi Arabia. The bon is wide in the number of missile launchers. For 1,900 Iran, Saudi Arabia has only 122.

Navy
The disparity between the two neighboring countries is also reflected in the number of naval vessels.

While neither country has an aircraft carrier or destroyer, Iran has 34 submarines, while Saudi Arabia does not have a submarine, according to website statistics.

In terms of frigates, the Saudi naval force slightly outperforms its Iranian counterpart by having seven frigates, versus six for Iran.

Both countries have three minesweeper ships, and almost all cruisers (4 for Saudi Arabia and 3 for Iran), but Iran is significantly outnumbering patrol vessels (88 versus 9 for Saudi Arabia).

Oil
In oil, the most important source of money in both countries, the balance seems to be highly favorable for Saudi Arabia in terms of production, export and reserves, with Saudi Arabia producing more than 10 million barrels per day, while it is not known exactly the volume of Iranian production at present.

Iran's oil exports have fallen to less than 500,000 bpd, up from more than 4 million before Washington left the nuclear deal and imposed sanctions on Tehran.

Saudi Arabia consumes 3 million barrels of oil per day, compared to about 1.9 million barrels in Iran.

Saudi Arabia's proven oil reserves are estimated at 266.5 billion barrels, compared with 158.4 billion barrels in Iran.