Nine people have reportedly been killed after Pakistan launched retaliatory missile strikes into Iran. It comes after Iran carried out deadly strikes on Pakistan on Tuesday night.
Pakistan military launched an operation on January 18 against “Pakistani-origin terrorists” inside Iran’s south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.Tehran has issued a statement stating the attack killed at least nine people and announced military exercises near the border with Pakistan.
It comes as tensions continue to flare up in the Middle East, sparking wider WW3 concerns after a number of overlapping conflicts as the UK and US continue to fight Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, while Israel continues to fight against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.
With tensions between the two powerful regional militaries rising how do the armies, navies and air forces of Pakistan and Iran compare?
Pakistan boasts more manpower with a population of 247 million versus Iran’s 86 million. While Iran enjoys a slightly higher GDP than Pakistan with a higher per capita income.
This is reflected in a larger defence budget for Tehran which spends $10 billion on defence compared to Pakistan’s budget of $6 billion.
Pakistan is a known nuclear-armed power with a stockpile of hundreds of warheads, however, Iran has none despite suspected efforts to obtain them. In terms of conventional army, both countries can mobilise over one million men – with Pakistan able to call on 1.7 million active personnel compared to Iran’s 1.1 million.
This number however included reservists and people in non-combat roles. Pakistan also has an advantage in tanks with 3,700 compared with Iran’s 1,996.
Iran does possess a slightly higher number of armoured vehicles, however. Meanwhile, Pakistan hold more artillery pieces being able to field around a thousand more than Iran.
Pakistan’s airforce would enjoy a numerical advantage in the event of a war having close to three times as many fighterplanes as their Iranian counterparts.
The country’s navies are finely balanced with a hundred or so ships each. In the event of all-out war, the balanced nature of the two nations’ conventional military would likely increase the strategic advantage of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal leading to a worrying threat of widening conflict in the Middle East.
