Just to add to RetPara's list.

The IDF's vaunted armored forced did lousy during their last war with Egypt... thier losses to saggers were obscenely high and too be honest, had then General Sadat been a bit more aggressive... we would had to intervene to save the nation (one reason for why Israel became so keen to aquire nukes during the late 70's.) Large scale mauneuver warfare is still the forte of certain mechanized formations in the Israili army but the bulk of her combat power is now geared towards  low-intensity COIN. However... doctrine is still in place and taught to their officers/NCO's. IDF personnel are known to be flexible and I'm sure with a few week preparation, units could be brought up to a fairly high standard. Remember, the IDF has the advantage of knowing exactly where their going to fight (not unlike the old USAEURA's whole focus on the Fulda Gap...) The USA doesn't have that now and has to prepare for contingencys everywhere.

Far as the list goes... I'd rate the JSDF about as high as any non-combat experienced out there (including Germany) and would like to add India just after the IDF... they might've cut certain political ties with the UK but their army maintains high standards for it's officers and NCOs in proper British fashion. Took 'em only a light reconnaisance brigade to bring  that PRC incursion to a screaming halt... 

Oh... and the Dutch have some red hot armored crews as well... remember how they used to consistantly win the Canadian Cup using old Leo-1's?

"The degenerative and loony should never be denigrated but, rather, thanked. In their absence, the rest of you would be obliged to fill congressional seats... positions naturally unsavory to the sane and honorable."

Thorax

MIKE LANSAW        

I thought the JGSDF used volounteers.

I think the natural conclusion to any attack on Israel is an expansion of the Israeli border.

Back in the day, I had a friend whose [Colonel] father had spent a lot of time with the Israelis. He didn't think much of them compared to Brits or Americans, for example. His line was that they looked good because they were fighting a force "Whose only resemblance to an Army was that they wear uniforms."

That's unfair, though, as the Israelis did some clever things. Most Armor doctrine says you fire at the trail tanks, or the leaders tanks. But the Israelis would often fire at the lead tanks in a formation. Not only that, they would use what we call HEP or "High Explosive, Plastic" rounds. These would make a big bang, but do very little else to the tank other than burn off some paint. But the crews would bail, in some instances leaving the tank running.

The Israelis would then bring up truckloads of drivers, who would drive the tanks back to be used, or sold. The Israelis have all sorts of upgrade kits for Russian hardware, and sold battalions worth of T55's.

They also put survey marks out in the desert so they could be sure of the range. The primary obstacle to long range (say, over 2,000 meters) tank gunnery was range determination. The stadimetric rangefinders then in use were slow and not always accurate. This enabled the Israelis to open up at ranges of up to 4,000 meters, so that the could do a lot of damage before having to leave that position.

They also became quite good at tank recovery and field repairs, out of necessity. I read accounts of gunners fighting for 48 hours straight, going through 2-3 loads of ammo and falling asleep against the gunners sight, not easy to do. They got the job done.

The world Armor community was paying attention to the Turkish competition, as there were some interesting variants submitted. I don't know where it stands now. The M1A2 SEP implements a lot of features that were not fielded in the past for cost reasons. The APU should never have been deleted from past models.

I hate to sound like a stat geek but you would really have to evaluate the whole package. As far the Armored combat team, who has the best scouts, and scout vech, the best close air, the best maintainers, if it takes a month to get busted tanks back in the fight, the fight may be over. The best refuel and resupply and best tactics. I would have to say the side is high in our favor. As far as the French go they don’t really have a lot of Le’clercs, and there mostly for Bastille Day, the best frog armor is the demi brigade of the Legion and I do believe the demi part means half.