Rankings of military might are controversial, but on any such list, the United States military is at the top (for simplicity’s sake, we used «army» in our question as a popular synonym for the Armed Forces, including the Army, Navy, and Aeronautics).
In addition to devastating weapons, the Americans have a force of 1.4 million soldiers (second only to the Chinese in this regard) and spend a fortune with the military: per year, they are 329 billion dollars, which is 1,138 dollars per inhabitant , one of the biggest expenses in the world.
Electing the lord of armies was easy, but figuring out the rest of the rankings was a war. We faced the battle and put together a first version of the list based on information from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the most respected independent organization that monitors the situation of armies around the world.
From the IISS statistics, we took three comparative data: the manpower of each army, the total and per capita military expenditures. But, as technology and the power of weapons also count valuable points, we decided to evaluate the arsenal of each nation using the analysis of Ricardo Bonalume Neto, journalist at Folha de S.Paulo specializing in military affairs – his are the comments in the table below.
In addition to the top ten, Bonalume draws attention to two other strong countries: Japan and Germany. “The Japanese have ships, tanks and guns that owe the Americans nothing in terms of technology. The Germans also have a well-equipped army. The highlight is the Leopard 2 tank, one of the best ever.”
(PS Ricardo Bonalume was a collaborator of Super interesting and died in March 2018. This article is from 2011. Staff and budget have been updated with 2019 figures available in our Armies of the World dossier, which you can read here).
1. United States
Effective: 1,281,900
Annual military spending: $716 billion
Nukes: yes
The only military superpower after the Soviet collapse, the United States owns the most powerful fleet in the world, which has a dozen giant aircraft carriers, most of them nuclear-powered. The country also has the largest nuclear arsenal and modern weapons operated by computers and guided by satellites.
2. Russia
Effective: 1,013,128
Annual military spending: $44 billion
Nukes: yes
The greatest heir of the former USSR has a large army and cutting-edge military research, but has few resources to buy equipment. The vocation for astronomical numbers has diminished: during the Cold War, the USSR had 5.3 million soldiers — a record — and produced more than 70,000 tanks of the T-54/T-55/T-62 series. They were inferior to Western models, but they could get the upper hand for quantity.
3. China
Effective: 2,183,000 soldiers
Annual military spending: $224 billion
Nukes: yes
The most populous country on Earth has a good number of nuclear weapons and has always had a large Armed Forces, but the unsophisticated level of its industry did not allow it to equip its troops with state-of-the-art weapons. This has changed recently: the economic leap and the relative political openness of the last two decades led China to invest in the modernization of the arsenal.
4. France
Effective: 205,000 soldiers
Annual military spending: $40.5 billion
Nukes: yes
To protect themselves from the communist threat in the Cold War, the French created their own nuclear force with the three classic means of delivering atomic weapons: missiles on land, in submarines and in airplanes. The defense industry is one of the main ones in Europe, producing top quality tanks like the Leclerc and classic planes like the Mirage series.
5. United Kingdom
Effective: 150,000 soldiers
Annual military spending: $47.5 billion.
Nukes: yes
Until World War II (1939-1945), Great Britain was the greatest naval power on Earth. After the conflict, the Royal Navy has shrunk, but it is still one of the world’s leading navies. The Army has always been small, but it is one of the most professional on the planet, well equipped with tanks, armored personnel carriers and missile paraphernalia.
6. North Korea
Effective: 1,280,000 soldiers
Annual military spending: $7.5 billion
Nukes: yes
Plagued by poverty and hunger, this country sustains one of the most militarized states on the planet. Involved in territory disputes with South Korea since the 1940s, the communists in the North have large troops with a lot of conventional weaponry. In recent decades, the country has developed technology to produce nuclear weapons.
7. India
Effective: 1,362,500 soldiers
Annual military spending: $55.2 billion
Nukes: yes
The second most populous country on the planet has always been at odds with its Muslim neighbors. Today, the biggest rival is Pakistan, with whom it disputes land in the Kashmir region. The hard-fought Indian troops are among the best equipped in the Third World. In addition to many soldiers, India has nuclear weapons and missiles to transport them.
8. pakistan
Effective: 654,000 soldiers
Annual military spending: $10.8 billion ($17 per inhabitant)
Nukes: yes
The biggest Muslim military power has a smaller economy and population than rival India, but to create a «balance of terror» in South Asia, Pakistan has also invested in nuclear weapons. Little is known about atomic weapons or the size of the country’s arsenal. But the existence of the bomb on both sides of the border has forced India and Pakistan into a tense coexistence — and “peaceful”, as far as possible.
9. South Korea
Effective: 625,000 soldiers
Annual military spending: $49.1 billion.
Nuclear weapons: no
Thanks to the protection of the United States, the country reached economic, scientific and technological levels far superior to those of its northern neighbor. Because of the crisis with the communists, South Korea maintains powerful Armed Forces in readiness on the border, although it does not have atomic weapons. The equipment is of high quality, bought from the Americans or developed locally with American help.
10. Israel
Effective: 170,000 soldiers
Annual military spending: $19.6 billion
Nukes: yes
Small and sparsely populated, Israel got involved in conflicts with its Arab neighbors and decided to arm itself to the teeth. To compensate for the numerical inferiority, the Israelis opted for quality: their troops are among the best trained on Earth, the Air Force has state-of-the-art technology and the experience in combat made the country develop some of the best weapons available, such as the Merkava tank .
Brazil
It is the best armed in South America, but it is not among the top 10 in the world.
Effective: 334,500 soldiers
Annual military spending: $29.3 billion
Nuclear weapons: no
It is not possible to carve out a position for Brazil in the world ranking of armies — the only certainty is that we would not reach the top 10. Numerically, our troops are the largest in South America. Technologically, we are similar to our neighbors. With well-defined borders, there are no major regional rivalries. For this reason, the country does not have the same “stimulus” to invest in arms as other contentious countries in the Third World. Fortunately.