A powerful and combat-ready army is the key to a country’s significant weight in the international arena. Moreover, in connection with famous events in Syria and Ukraine increasingly military power different countries the utmost attention is paid. Many people ask the question: “Who will win the world war?”

Today we present an annually updated, official ranking of the world's armies, a list that includes the most powerful armies in the world in 2016.

Rating of the most powerful armies in the world (According to Globalfirepower) The top 10 was compiled according to the specialized resource Globalfirepower. When compiling the rating, the size of the world's armies, weapons, military budget, resource availability and logistics are compared. Experts did not take into account nuclear potential. By the way, San Marino has the weakest army in the world in 2016 - only 80 people.

10. South Korea

The Korean army is the third largest in Asia - 630 thousand troops. The country has a very high number of military personnel per thousand inhabitants - 14.2 people. Korea's defense budget is $33.7 billion.

9. Germany

The country's military budget is $45 billion. The number of German armed forces is 186,500 people. The German army is completely professional, i.e. There has been no compulsory conscription in the country since 2011.

8. Türkiye

The Turkish army is the best in the Middle East. The number of the country's armed forces is 510,000 people. Turkey's military budget is $18 billion. There are just over 7 military personnel per thousand residents of the country.

7. Japan

The Japanese Army opens our list of the best. The combat-ready part of the army numbers 247 thousand military personnel. With such a large armed force, the country has a simply huge defense budget - $49 billion.

6. UK

The country's military budget is $53 billion. The size of the British armed forces is 188,000 military personnel - this is the smallest army in the ranking. But the Royal Navy of Britain is the second in the world in terms of tonnage.

5. France

Opens a list of the 5 most powerful armies in the world. The country's military budget is $43 billion. The number of French armed forces is 222,000 people. The key to the combat effectiveness of this army is the presence in it of a full range of weapons of its own production, from warships to helicopters and small arms.

4. India

The country's military budget is $46 billion. The number of Indian armed forces is 1,346,000 people, the country's army is the third largest in the world.

3. China

The largest army in the world ranking is the Chinese army, numbering 2,333,000 troops. Wikipedia shows that there are 1.71 military personnel per 1,000 inhabitants of the Celestial Empire. China's military budget is $126 billion.

2. Russia

The Russian armed forces are superior to almost all armies of the world in terms of weapons power in all branches of the military - air, ground and sea. The size of the Russian army in 2016 is 798,000 people. Military budget - $76 billion. Among the superpowers, Russia has a very high rate of the number of military personnel per 1000 inhabitants - 5.3 people.

1. USA

The most powerful army in the world, according to Globalfirepower, is American. By the way, it is not the largest in terms of numbers, but the most powerful in terms of available weapons, including nuclear potential, which is not taken into account by experts. The US Army has a strength of 1,492,200 people and a defense budget of $612 billion.

Comparison table of armies of the world (Infographics)

Which army is the strongest in the world? This question interests many people.
Of course, the easiest way to identify the best among the most powerful armies in the world is through war.

An extreme measure is absolutely unacceptable, so we will look at the best armies on Earth in terms of their numbers, weapons and the budget that states spend on them.

Israel is in tenth place. This state is located in a very turbulent place - among not very friendly neighbors, therefore military practice Israel, unfortunately, had quite a few in the twentieth century. So it is not surprising that the state spends a decent amount of $15 billion on maintaining the army.

The army is well equipped with a significant amount of modern military equipment; its strength is constantly 240,000 soldiers, among whom there are many girls, because compulsory urgent military service in Israel covers young people of both sexes.

9 Japan

The ninth place of the most powerful armies in the world is occupied by the Land of the Rising Sun.

As you know, after World War II, during which Japan was an ally Nazi Germany, this country is prohibited from maintaining a large army, as well as from conducting offensive battles.

Japan is located in close proximity to a rather aggressive neighbor - the DPRK. Therefore, without being able to increase the size of the army, the state improves its equipment as much as possible.

The Japanese army is one of the most technically advanced armies in the world; it owns a large amount of modern military equipment: about 5,000 aircraft alone. There are approximately 200,000 soldiers in service. Of course, the Japanese spend significant amounts of money on weapons - about 50 billion dollars, and according to some reports, even more.

France is in the eighth month in the ranking of the most powerful armies in the world. Although this country itself is small and located in prosperous Europe, it still considers it necessary to maintain a fairly large army, the number of which is about 230 thousand people.

In addition, the army of this country, a NATO member, is well armed and enjoys active financial support from the state - it receives no less than 44 billion euros a year.

Oddly enough, this small Asian country has a fairly strong army. However, this is quite understandable due to the situation South Korea surrounded by unfriendly neighbors.

You can even say that the Korean army is one of the largest armies in the world, because there are at least 2 million people in reserve. Although regular army consists of only 650 thousand soldiers and officers.

The state spends about 30 million dollars annually to maintain the high combat effectiveness of its troops, equipped with at least 14 thousand units of military equipment, among which 1500 units are the latest combat aircraft.

Those who are accustomed to thinking of Turkey as just a pleasant place for a beach holiday will find it difficult to believe that the Turkish army is one of the strongest in the world. Meanwhile, why be surprised? After all, among Turkey’s closest neighbors there are many very troubled countries, including, for example, Syria, where, as we know, an armed conflict has arisen again.

Türkiye is an active NATO member; it spends about $18 billion annually on its military. However, such a “modest” budget compared to others does not prevent Turkey from maintaining almost 700,000 well-trained military personnel and almost 70,000 units of ground combat equipment.

Now the military fleet of the former “Queen of the Seas” no longer makes such a strong impression as in past centuries, and consists of only about a hundred ships. But the army in England is still one of the strongest on the planet.

Although it is relatively small (only a little over 200 thousand soldiers), it is at the same time superbly armed with aircraft and other units of the latest military equipment.

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And no wonder! After all, the budget of the British army is almost 75 billion dollars, which all goes to highly trained military personnel and high-quality military equipment.

One can only be surprised, because this country, which only recently was a British colony, has already been able to acquire an army that ranks 4th in the ranking of the most powerful armies in the world.

This is explained by the need to protect its territorial integrity from (sometimes aggressive) neighbors. India has one of the largest armies on Earth, with 1.3 million personnel.

The Indian Army is well armed, with almost two and a half thousand combat aircraft; the country has nuclear weapons, modern ground-based military equipment - and all this on a budget of about 50 billion dollars.

It will hardly come as a surprise to anyone if we report that China has the largest army in the world. This country, famous for its dense population, has an army of more than two million soldiers, with at least a million more in reserve.

The Chinese army is well armed. Its troops are equipped with almost sixty thousand units of ground equipment, almost 1000 warships; there are nuclear weapons, although they are, of course, worse than those in the arsenal of Russia or the United States.

This number of soldiers and weapons is explained by the aggravated international situation around China.

2 Strong nuclear power Russia

Army Russian Federation ranks second in the rankings of the most powerful armies. But, if we evaluate solely nuclear weapons, the armed forces of the Russian Federation will probably end up in the first place.

Their number also exceeds the size of the US Army by almost twice, this is explained by severe necessity, because the country’s borders are very long, for this reason the army called upon to protect them consists of about a million military personnel, and there are about twenty million more in reserve.

The Army of the Russian Federation is equipped with the latest military equipment, which includes almost 92,000 units of ground combat equipment and more than two and a half thousand aircraft. Russia, unfortunately, does not have a very large number of warships and submarines, but they are well armed and in many ways superior to similar equipment from other countries. As for nuclear weapons, from this point of view the Russian army is the best in the world.

1 The most powerful US army

After the collapse of the USSR, the USA remained the most powerful power. This partly explains the leading position occupied by the army of this country in our ranking, as well as the methodical destruction (intentional or not, it does not matter) of the military industry and the army as a whole in Russia after the collapse of the Union.

It is enough that the military spending of the United States amounts to almost 700 billion dollars a year, which is more than the military spending of all other countries in our ranking combined.

The US Army is equipped with the latest technology, including a large number of warships, significantly exceeding the number of units in the Russian navy.

The size of the American army is 560,000 people. The USA is one of the strongest nuclear powers in the world. In this respect, they are somewhat inferior only to the Russian Federation, but atomic weapons America is quite enough to conduct any victorious war, because it amounts to at least five thousand ballistic missiles, and this is not counting everything else (let’s say, 30 military satellites).

The Global Firepower website assessed the strength of the armies of 126 countries using 50 criteria. At the same time, the nuclear potential of countries was not taken into account, but the state of the economy was taken into account. The authors put the US Army in first place (0.1661 points), Russia in second (0.1865), and China in third (0.2315). How much does the rating reflect reality? And what are the prospects for the three strongest armies in the world?

"The Russian Army is the best in the world"

The authors warn that the ranking did not take into account the nuclear potential of countries, the current potential of political and military leadership, the number of weapons was not a determining factor, and landlocked countries were not punished for lack of navy, and vice versa, sea powers were punished. Factors taken into account were: geographical location and the economic situation in the country.

The absolute value of the "power index" ("PwrIndx") for a perfect army should be "0.0000", which is realistically unattainable. The rating is formed by a system of bonuses and penalties. For example, Austria, which is landlocked, does not receive a penalty for having an insufficient navy, but does receive one for not having a capable merchant fleet.

The authors indicate the following factual sources: cia. gov, CIA World Factbook, wikipedia. com, available data in the media and bloggers. Some values were estimates when official data were not available, the introduction states.

As a result, the top ten most powerful included the armies of the USA, Russia, China, India, Great Britain, France, South Korea, Germany, Japan and Turkey. Let's compare the performance of the first three most powerful armies.

1. By the number of military personnel in first place is the Chinese army - 2.333 million people, in second place is the United States (1.4 million), Russian army- on the third (766.055 thousand military personnel). The data on the personnel reserve is interesting. Here Russia is in first place - 2.485 million people, China is in second - 2.3 million, and the USA - 1.1 million people.

Certainly, high-quality composition military personnel are different. The US military is 100 percent contracted. The level of their material and technical equipment is high.

Russia has only just begun to modernize military equipment, while the Chinese army is still gaining in numbers. But in terms of fighting spirit, the Russians, seasoned in recent conflicts, are superior to the soldiers of their “rivals”. At the beginning of the year, an attack on the American cruiser Vicksbur was imitated by a Su-34. There was no electronic impact on the ship, but the Americans did not even manage to use the air defense system, and two dozen sailors submitted their resignation.

2. On ground combat systems, in particular for tanks, the Russian army is in first place - 15,398 tanks (main battle tanks, light tanks and wheeled or tracked tank destroyers). In second place is the Chinese army (9,150 tanks), and in third place are the Americans (8,848 armored vehicles).

Russia has a huge advantage (many times) in armored combat vehicles (armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles), self-propelled guns, towed guns and multiple launch rocket systems. We will not present the numbers here; the reader can look at them on his own. This advantage is due to the fact that our possible theater of military operations is the near abroad, and no one has yet canceled the proposed tank attack on Berlin.

New Russian tanks will consolidate this superiority. Mass delivery of the latest T-14 Armata tanks to the Russian army will begin at the turn of 2017-2018. There are no new developments in the USA; the Pentagon relies on modernized versions of their military vehicles from the past cold war— M-1 Abrams and Bradley.

China has a third generation tank - VT-4 (MBT-3000). The Chinese claim that in key parameters it even surpasses the Armata. But this tank is intended exclusively for export; the Chinese army is not going to fight with it. The question is why?

3. Air Force - the rating takes into account airplanes and helicopters of all military branches. Here the US Army has leadership; of course, their “island” position obliges them to do so. The proposed theater of military operations is in Eurasia, and equipment and soldiers must be delivered there.

The United States has 13,892 aircraft, of which 2,207 are fighters, 2,797 attack aircraft, 5,366 transport aircraft, and 6,196 helicopters.

In second place is the Russian army. It has a total of 3,429 aircraft, of which 769 are fighters, 1,305 attack aircraft, 1,083 transport aircraft, and 1,120 helicopters. China has a total of 2,860 aircraft in service, of which 1,066 are fighters, 1,311 attack aircraft, 876 transport aircraft, and 876 helicopters. 908.

In terms of quality indicators, the Russians have begun to catch up with the Americans. The commander of the US Air Force in Europe, General Frank Gorenc, said this recently at a meeting with reporters. The general especially noted “the ability (of the Russians) to create extremely well-protected zones using access restriction systems,” for example, in Crimea and the Kaliningrad region.

10.19.2015 at 11:12 · Pavlofox · 94 740

Top 10 Most Powerful Armies in the World 2015

There is only one way to know for sure which state has the strongest army in the world, but, fortunately, it is unacceptable. Today's military forces largest states do not participate in full-scale military conflicts. How to evaluate the power of the armies of different countries? There is a global firepower index for this purpose. It includes more than 50 factors by which military strength is assessed. This is the amount of equipment, manpower, the size of the defense budget, availability natural resources and so on. It should be noted that this data is constantly changing and needs to be clarified. In addition, many indicators, while reflecting quantity, say nothing about quality. For example, a country may have many submarines, but they will be outdated and significantly inferior in combat effectiveness to modern models. In addition, not all countries have access to the sea, and therefore do not have a navy. The firepower index takes this factor into account and does not exclude such states from the rating. So, the most powerful armies in the world in 2015 - which of our neighbors around the globe should we be wary of?

10.

Opens the ranking of the most powerful armies in the world in 2015. Despite the fact that according to the country's constitution, it does not have the right to have an offensive army, Japan's military forces are very powerful. The country's arsenal includes all types of weapons, and the technical equipment of the army is one of the best in the world. Due to territorial disputes with the DPRK, the country intends to further increase defense spending. Japan currently spends about $49 billion on military needs.

9.

In ninth position among the most powerful world– . After World War II, the country was limited to defense forces only, but in recent years Germany is actively increasing military force. Military spending is $45 billion. The number of troops is about 185 thousand people. Despite such a small army, German ground forces are in no way inferior to Russian ones.

8.

It ranks 8th in the ranking of the most powerful armies in the world. The country spends $34 billion annually on military spending. The size of the army is about 640 thousand people, in the reserve there are about 3 million inhabitants. Due to the constant threat from the nearest neighbor, North Korea, the country is constantly increasing its military potential.

7.

In seventh place on the list of the strongest armies in the world is. The country spends about $18 billion on military needs, but this spending is expected to increase due to the difficult situation in Syria. The Turkish army is considered the best in the Middle East. It actively participates in many NATO operations.

6.

It occupies sixth position in the ranking of the most powerful armies in the world in 2015. The key to the success of this country, whose army numbers 230 thousand people, is the availability of a full range of weapons of its own production. And don’t forget that France is one of the nuclear powers.

5.

It ranks 5th in the list of the most powerful and combat-ready armies on the planet. Gone are the days when England had unhindered dominance of the seas. But, although the status of the strongest maritime power has long been lost, the country continues to remain on the list of the most serious military forces in the world. England has all types of weapons in its arsenal, and a military budget of 53 billion dollars allows it to improve and modernize the army.

4.

In fourth place in the ranking of the strongest armies in the world is. It’s a paradox, but this country, far from being the richest, has outperformed many economically developed countries by the power of military forces. The secret lies in the number of troops. The country's army numbers about 1 million 300 thousand people. In addition, India owns nuclear weapons and the navy, which increases its combat effectiveness. The country's military spending is $46 billion a year.

3.

The third place in the ranking of the most powerful armed forces on the planet is occupied by a country that evokes fear and respect at the same time -. Thousands of years ago, numerous discoveries were made here that allowed human civilization to take a big step forward. And today, China continues to amaze the world with its tenacity and ability to short terms make amazing progress both in the economy and in the development of military technology. China has reached third place in the ranking of the most powerful armies in the world not only due to the number of its troops - and they number more than two million people. In the event of a military conflict, the Celestial Empire can call up another 5% of the population and the size of the Chinese army will increase to 60 million. The numbers are simply stunning. In addition, the country has nuclear potential and a large number military equipment. China has long been suspected of using industrial espionage to copy the best weapons of other countries, in particular Russia and the United States. Spending on the military budget is the second in the world ($126 billion). It is possible that China unofficially spends much more on equipping its army.

2.

It is in second place in the list of the most powerful armies in the world in 2015. It has advanced military technology, and its army is considered the most powerful ground force in the world. The country has a strong and large navy, including more than 60 modern nuclear submarines. The power of the Russian army's air force is comparable to that of the United States Air Force. Russia surpasses the United States in the number of heavy military equipment, in particular tanks. country - the largest in the world. The army consists of about a million people. Russia spends approximately $80 billion annually to support the combat capability of the army. All this together gives the country the right to consider its army one of the strongest in the world in 2015.

1.

1st place - . Whatever one may say, the United States has today the most powerful military force. No other country in the world has a military budget like here. Almost 613 billion dollars - this is how much the United States spends on annually increasing its power. And this despite the fact that the country reduced spending on the army by 7% in connection with the withdrawal of its troops from Iran and Afghanistan. The size of the army is almost one and a half million people and about 700 thousand are in reserve.

What else to see:

"The Russian Army is the best in the world"

The authors warn that when compiling the rating, the nuclear potential of countries, the current potential of political and military leadership were not taken into account, the number of weapons was not a determining factor, and landlocked countries were not punished for the lack of a navy, and vice versa, maritime powers — were punished. Factors such as geographic location and economic situation in the country were taken into account.

1. By the number of military personnel The Chinese army is in first place with 2.333 million people, the United States is in second place (1.4 million), and the Russian army is in third place (766.055 thousand troops). The data on the personnel reserve is interesting. Here Russia is in first place - 2.485 million people, China is in second - 2.3 million, and the USA - 1.1 million people.

Of course, the quality of the military personnel varies. The US military is 100 percent contracted. The level of their material and technical equipment is high.

New Russian tanks will consolidate this superiority. Mass delivery of the latest T-14 Armata tanks to the Russian army will begin at the turn of 2017-2018. There are no new developments in the United States; the Pentagon relies on modernized versions of its Cold War-era combat vehicles - the M-1 Abrams and Bradley.

3. Air Force- the rating takes into account airplanes and helicopters of all military branches. Here the US Army has leadership; of course, their “island” position obliges them to do so. The proposed theater of military operations is in Eurasia, and equipment and soldiers must be delivered there.

The United States has 13,892 aircraft, of which 2,207 are fighters, 2,797 attack aircraft, 5,366 transport aircraft, and 6,196 helicopters.