In this article we present our rankings of the 10 most powerful militaries in the world.
While Covid-19 has united countries against a common cause, let’s not forget that the moment this pandemic subsides, the 10 most powerful militaries in the world in 2020 can cause absolute chaos and destruction. It was only in the beginning of what now seems to be a never ending year, when World War 3 looked to be not just possible, but inevitable. On the 3rd of January 2020, the United States killed Qasim Soleimani, an Iranian Major General, via a drone strike. Soleimani was one of the most important men in Iran, and his killing sparked a major international crisis. Of course, Iran can’t really go toe to toe against the US, the difference in military power is huge, and Iran doesn’t even make our list, while the US of course does. In 2019, Pakistan and India, two neighbors who have hated each other since separation, went toe to toe and Pakistan shot down Indian jets invading Pakistani airspace, again inviting the possibility of all out war. While diplomacy has prevailed on these occasions, all just one incident can be enough to cause mutually assured destruction.
Throughout history, countries and empires have grown, not just through technological and cultural advancements, but mainly through military might. This is why, even now, when we know the dangers facing the world, and Covid-19 is just one example, countries continue to spend the majority of their budget on defense reinforcement. In 2019, $1,917 billion were spent on military on a global level, with the United States registering the greatest growth at 5.3% as compared to the previous year and hence, will definitely be found on both, lists of world military ranking 2020 and world military ranking 2019. Some of the biggest beneficiaries of this trend is defense stocks like Raytheon Technologies Corporation (NYSE:RTX), General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC).
Pavel Vakhrushev/Shutterstock.com
There are a myriad ways to rank the most powerful militaries in the world. Some would determine it based on active personnel, while others would prefer total weapons and military might. However, we believe that simply having more weapons, or vehicles, or personnel does not make you the strongest army. If you read about the most power navies in the world, you’ll see that even though North Korea has the highest number of naval vehicles, it still lags behind at least 3 other countries as it mostly has patrol boats and submarines. One Reddit user summarized the best methodology to rank the most powerful militaries:
“I’d love to see a weighted strength index that takes technological superiority into account. Sure North Korea has the most submarines, but how does that compare to just a few American subs? Same for aircraft where I’m sure that an F-22 could be the tech equivalent of several MiG-21’s. Does something like this exist already?”
Unfortunately, there is no “weighted strength index that takes technological superiority into account”. So what’s the next best thing? We know that countries must spend billions to develop a new technology and the weapons produced by using this technology is going to be much more expensive than the older technology weapons. This indicates that we can use the “price” of a weapon as a proxy for the strength of that weapon. This is why the main factor in our methodology is the total military expenditure of each country for the last decade. The sources of this information are World Bank and Global Fire Power.
However, there are still a couple of limitations of ranking by military expenditure alone. The first one is cost of living adjustment. An engineer or a soldier with the same exact technical skills will cost more money in a high cost of living country versus a low cost of living country. We have corrected this by adjusting the “total military budget” by using a cost of living index for each country from Numbeo. The second shortcoming is that a weapon that’s twice more expensive won’t necessarily be twice more effective. It could be less than twice more effective or it could be infinitely more effective. For example owning a nuclear bomb is probably almost “infinitely” more effective because it is a huge deterrent. Also owning a faster and more agile warplane is probably almost infinitely more effective because the air force with the faster warplanes will dominate the country with the less capable warplanes. However, as mentioned earlier, due to us not having access to such data, these limitations will still persist. Based on the best information available, let’s look at the countries with the most capable firepower, starting with number 10:
10. Japan
Japan has the second highest number of aircraft carriers in the world, as well as the second highest number of attack helicopters. Even though its military personnel may not be as numerous as some of the other countries in the list, at 303,000, you cannot underestimate the strength of the country’s military. Its spending has actually decreased by 10% over the last decade, and yet it still made our list.
Pixabay/Public Domain
9. Germany
Germany has adopted a strong anti war approach ever since the embarrassment of its actions in World War II. However, that should not deter from the fact that it has a really strong army, ready to take on any possible combatant. Over the past decade, its spending has increased by 8%.
Pixabay/Public Domain
8. France
France has become a meme for losing wars and giving up as soon as things go wrong, but it actually has a very impressive military and has the second highest number of aircraft carriers in the world at 4, same as Japan.
Pixabay/Public Domain
7. United Kingdom
Surprisingly, a lot of countries in our list have reduced their military expenditures over the last decade, with the United Kingdom being one of them. Expenditure has fallen 5% but it is still a mighty military, ready to deal with any possible threat.
Pixabay/Public Domain
6. Brazil
While Brazil’s actual spend is lower than a lot of countries that did not make our list, it was propelled forward in the rankings due to having a very low cost of living index. This is despite registering an 18% decrease in military spending over the decade.
Pixabay/Public Domain
5. Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is famous for providing billions of dollars of arms to the US. Saudi Arabia has a lot of expensive weapons but we don’t think its military is as powerful as British, French, and German militaries. One reason Saudi Arabia made our list is that it has registered one of the highest increases in net spend over the recent years, at nearly 50%. Maybe we should have used total military spending over the last 30 or 40 years as the main factor in our rankings.
Pixabay/Public Domain
4. Russia
Russia might sometimes use sneaky methods such as poisoning its critics, but it has a powerful military as well, though perhaps not as mighty as when it was the Soviet Union. The army is necessary to stave of pressure from the US, and includes nearly 900 fighter jets, 2 aircraft carriers, and 13,000 tanks, which is the highest number of tanks and more than double that of its nearest competitor.
Pixabay/Public Domain
3. India
India’s army has been in the news recently due to skirmishes with the Chinese army at their border. We should all pray for things to deescalate because if two of the biggest armies in the world go to war, everyone loses.
Pixabay/Public Domain
2. China
It may be challenging to become the new superpower of the world, with a massively growing economy and military. China will definitely need its army though, as it is picking up fights with some of the biggest countries in the world such as the US and India. China also has the highest increase in military spending over the last decade at over 100%!
Pixabay/Public Domain
1. United States of America
There can be no doubt that the United States of America tops the list of the 5 most powerful militaries in the world in 2020. The country has 20 aircraft carriers, more than the rest of the world combined, also topping the lists of most armored vehicles, most fighter jets and most attack helicopters. The US spends a significant portion of its budget on its military and even now, there is no other country which can really threaten America’s military might. Its military spending has had a steady increase of 7% over the last decade.
See also 7 most powerful navies in the world and top 15 countries that get the most foreign aid from the US (soft power is as important as military might).
This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
