The Great Saudi Tank Turkey Shoot in Yemen

[ivanov]

When you employ Soviet tactics with the US equipment, it ends up exactly the same, as Soviet tactics with Soviet equipment...

The Saudis supposedly have the best equipped and trained army in the Middle East... There are many more videos like this.

[CapnDarwin]

Not sure what tactics you mean. That looks like a flank strike on the M1's turret with normal results. Not sure about the situation or why the tank was just sitting in the open, failed to see the ATGM launch, or much else from the video.

[Stimpak]

I don't think "sit in the open alone, without support" is a Soviet tactic.

Still, kind of funny to see the "Invincible" Abrams finally taking combat losses.

[ivanov]

There are many more videos like this, where the Houthi rebels destroy lone, unprotected Abrams or Bradleys, sometimes from a close range. My point is, that the Arab armies ( regardless if they are Saudis, modern Iraqi army or Saddam's Iraqi army ), fail to employ, their sometimes first class equipment, in a sound tactical manner. Leaving lone tanks or APC's in a mountainous terrain reminds me what the Soviets did in Afghanistan.

Killing Bradley from a close range


Scene like from the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan


The Saudis also lost at least 3 Apaches in Yemen.

[IronMikeGolf]

I worked a couple yrs as a contract tactical trainer in another corner of the Kingdom a few years back. I could tell you some stories...

Some of those Brads look like that were already abandoned when the got attacked by dismounted infantry. Gun max elevation, hatches open, no one unassing when the vehicle is hit.

And that plt shows you if you are in a defense, you sit in turret defilade, not hull defilade.

Like I said, I collected a few anecdotes while doing Bradley training with the shebab.

[ivanov]

ORIGINAL: Iron Mike Golf
Like I said, I collected a few anecdotes while doing Bradley training with the shebab.

We're listening [:D]

[IronMikeGolf]

Here? Hah! You gotta be kidding me. I will say that gunnery qualification was a hoot and setting up and running a battalion task force live fire was...interesting. Ok, ok, one story.

I was in charge of range design and safety for said live fire. 3 x BFV companies, one Abrams company, with a 155 battery playing, too. Night defense by the inf to commence around 2200 hrs followed by a counterattack by the tanks. Everything is very scripted. Out with a crew setting up targets around 10:30 AM. Now the arty battery commander really, and I mean really, did not want to be up late at night for this. So he looks at his watch and says something like, "Oh, look. It's 10:30. Time to shoot." I got a few jeeps, trucks with target boards, an end loader, and half a dozen guys downrange when the rounds started impacting. I confess to getting a little excited on the radio at that point. Of course, one of the jeeps hits a sharp rock and gets a flat as we evac.

[DoubleDeuce]

I helped train lots of middle eastern officers on the M60A3 back in the late 80's. Not much tactics stuff really, mostly the crew level operations (the care and feeding of your beast). I can only imagine what it was like trying to train and evaluate them at that level . . Keystone Cops on steroids I'm guessing.

[ivanov]

ORIGINAL: Iron Mike Golf
I was in charge of range design and safety for said live fire. 3 x BFV companies, one Abrams company, with a 155 battery playing, too. Night defense by the inf to commence around 2200 hrs followed by a counterattack by the tanks. Everything is very scripted. Out with a crew setting up targets around 10:30 AM. Now the arty battery commander really, and I mean really, did not want to be up late at night for this. So he looks at his watch and says something like, "Oh, look. It's 10:30. Time to shoot." I got a few jeeps, trucks with target boards, an end loader, and half a dozen guys downrange when the rounds started impacting. I confess to getting a little excited on the radio at that point. Of course, one of the jeeps hits a sharp rock and gets a flat as we evac.

[X(]

[IronMikeGolf]

Not far off the mark, Double Deuce.

Katukov: One transmission went something like this, "...and I don't care if you have to cut their f%$#ing lanyards, you put them in CHECK FIRE, Redleg!" Fun times! My interpreter (an Eqyptian) quit later that day.

[ivanov]

[:D]

So much for the myth of th best trained army of the Middle East...

[Stimpak]

There's a longer, seven minute video that shows two things: One, the launcher in question is a Konkurs (unknown variant), and the second shows a second Abrams being hit on the frontal turret armour and still going up. I don't think these Abrams have DU armour, even if they are M1A2SEP.

I believe the best trained Arab army is ironically Hezbollah, even if many Lebanese do not consider themselves Arabic.

[ivanov]

Arabs are considered great warriors but poor soldiers. IMO Hezbollah falls into the first category, however I'm not sure if they can be considered an Arab organization. If not Saudi Arabia, then maybe Jordanian army is the best trained? Traditionally they performed better than Iraqi, Syrian or Egyptian armies. While Iraq had to build it's military from the scratch based on the Soviet model, the Jordanians had already a competent armed forces trained by the Brits.

[Stimpak]

We'll wait and see if Jordan's land forces become involved in this conflict against ISIS.

[CaesarCzech]

ORIGINAL: Stimpak

We'll wait and see if Jordan's land forces become involved in this conflict against ISIS.

in that case if their ground forces are as capable as their Air. ISIS is fucked.

[Akmatov]

Interesting, and very long, recentish book Arabs at War concludes that arab grunts are fine, the occasional arab general is OK and everything in between is a disaster. Author concluded that the issue is a deeply entrenched cultural issue. If interested, check it out.

$10 at Amazon.

Author might know what he is talking about
Kenneth M. Pollack, formerly a Persian Gulf military analyst at the CIA and Director for Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council

[batteran]

Saoudi turkey Vs Mountain Arab Grunts in Yem... ahum. In Saoudi Arabia, actually:

http://en.abna24.com/service/middle-eas ... story.html

(The Houthis Mountain Tribes, allied with the Moutain Soldiers of Republican Gards of Yemen, have recently launched an offensive in Yemen, and in Saoudi Arabia. And taken some mountain forts, watchtowers, villages, and even a small town of Saoudi Arabia, close to the mountains)



Here some mountain footages:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d80_1444056748

Here footages of figth in town borders, and in town:

http://asia.jokpeme.com/2015/11/footage ... saudi.html

Look like professional arab grunts.

[comte]

Why Arabs lose Wars....

http://www.meforum.org/441/why-arabs-lose-wars