got a book listing the tanks /apc's/artilary etc... landforces + heli's a number of top nations have and USA has lots of top vehicles.
regardless of whats better e.g. merkava or abrams, or leclerc america has 6000 + M1's, whereas israel has about 1,300 merkavas, brits have less than 200 challengers and french have 122 leclercs... crazy stuff...
russia has much more tanks... but alot of them are T-55, T-72's which are obsolete against the top 6 of today... interesting book.
can see what different countries at conflict with one another have.

e.g. india has T-55's vs pakistans chinese replicant T-59's (replicants of T-55's)...

if we dont consider nukes... id say germany is a greater superpower than france as all its armor is new.

interesting book... only prob is doesnt go into details of ALL tanks, just majority, and doesnt really let you know the status of these tanks. e.g. M113's and M60's are labbeled as the same, so for a novice, it would seem one countries M60's are the same as anothers when one of them could have upgraded the vehicles...still interesting nonetheless

yes, the US is the best equipped landforce around the world. But i don't thinkl that's the determinative factor of a conflict/war. Just look into the Vietnam war. Were the US much much better equipped than the Vietnamese? Then what resulted?

Originally Posted by rocco

got a book listing the tanks /apc's/artilary etc... landforces + heli's a number of top nations have and USA has lots of top vehicles.
regardless of whats better e.g. merkava or abrams, or leclerc america has 6000 + M1's, whereas israel has about 1,300 merkavas, brits have less than 200 challengers and french have 122 leclercs... crazy stuff...
russia has much more tanks... but alot of them are T-55, T-72's which are obsolete against the top 6 of today... interesting book.
can see what different countries at conflict with one another have.

e.g. india has T-55's vs pakistans chinese replicant T-59's (replicants of T-55's)...

if we dont consider nukes... id say germany is a greater superpower than france as all its armor is new.

interesting book... only prob is doesnt go into details of ALL tanks, just majority, and doesnt really let you know the status of these tanks. e.g. M113's and M60's are labbeled as the same, so for a novice, it would seem one countries M60's are the same as anothers when one of them could have upgraded the vehicles...still interesting nonetheless

You mean the country with the best tank will win the whole war? If it was so simple then why not to develope a new super modern tank wich beats alone all M1s, Leo2s, leclercs, merkavas and others 100-0? No need for other branches, tactics etc.

Looking at armour is a very limited way to look at a nations warfare capacity, even ground war. Look at Australia. Despite having Leopards, M113's and ASLAV we are a strong fighting force, and have beaten the Americans in wargames in both the Mojave desert and here in Australia in Shoalwater bay. The Americans may have big numbers and technically superior equipment, but it doesn't equate to being best (not taking anything away from the US military, I have much respect, as they have beaten us just as well).

I has been claimed by military leaders, both US, Brit and Aussie that the Australian troops are the BEST equiped in Iraq, in regards to personal equipment and the vehicles we use (best equiped in their class since we didn't send MBT's). I use the example of Americans being forced to use scrap metal to up armour the Humvees. No such problem with the Australians (and don't anybody even dare say it's cos we don't do much over there).

Originally Posted by truesight

yes, the US is the best equipped landforce around the world. But i don't thinkl that's the determinative factor of a conflict/war. Just look into the Vietnam war. Were the US much much better equipped than the Vietnamese? Then what resulted?

Not so much an equipment issue as a tactics and doctrine issue. Large Armor formations that had trained to defend Fulda Gap against a Eastern Bloc threat in Europe were no good in SEA. That was a Light Infantry War.
And the US Military never lost a Major engagement to VC or the NVA.

Originally Posted by rocco

got a book listing the tanks /apc's/artilary etc... landforces + heli's a number of top nations have and USA has lots of top vehicles.
regardless of whats better e.g. merkava or abrams, or leclerc america has 6000 + M1's, whereas israel has about 1,300 merkavas, brits have less than 200 challengers and french have 122 leclercs... crazy stuff...
russia has much more tanks... but alot of them are T-55, T-72's which are obsolete against the top 6 of today... interesting book.
can see what different countries at conflict with one another have.

e.g. india has T-55's vs pakistans chinese replicant T-59's (replicants of T-55's)...

if we dont consider nukes... id say germany is a greater superpower than france as all its armor is new.

interesting book... only prob is doesnt go into details of ALL tanks, just majority, and doesnt really let you know the status of these tanks. e.g. M113's and M60's are labbeled as the same, so for a novice, it would seem one countries M60's are the same as anothers when one of them could have upgraded the vehicles...still interesting nonetheless

Does that book mention smaller countries? If the comparison is not just centered around the numbers?

The Brits have less than 200 chalengers?

Is this true?

Originally Posted by truesight

i don't thinkl that's the determinative factor of a conflict/war. Just look into the Vietnam war. Were the US much much better equipped than the Vietnamese? Then what resulted?

i totally agree with you, i made certain that no where in my thread did i claim that better equipment = better army... thats why my thread says "hardware wise", sorry if taken out of context... + hardware issue has been proven in the past in arab-israeli conflict...

yet this is the hardware area. and so technology is the topic not tactics. there is another category, where you can discuss tactics.

About Israel having 1300 merkavas, that data is probably growing incorect by the minute. as we know that new Merkavas are being made right now(Mk 4).And we know that the IDF just retired 800 Centurion tanks 2 years ago. What do you think replaced them? Id put Merkava noumbers at over 1500 and in a few years prbably at 3000+. Note that aside from that Israel has a huge fleet of improved M60s that are probably as good as the earlier Merkava models.

not much as the hardware. Tactics is all it is.