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Military and economic experts regularly determine the world index military power — Global Firepower index. This is one of the most objective ratings, it takes into account more than 50 different indicators. This year, experts analyzed the armed forces of 127 states.

When compiling the Global Firepower (GFP) Index, not only is a rigorous calculation of tanks, aircraft and warships carried out, but also the number of personnel of the army and its reserve, the level of financing of the military sphere, transport infrastructure countries, oil production, the size of the public debt and even the length of the coastline - in a word, all the factors that can affect the combat capability of the national army.

Availability nuclear arsenal not taken into account, but nuclear-weapon states receive a "bonus". The top three - the United States, Russia and China - has remained unchanged for three years. This is how the rating of the most powerful armies world in 2015.

America for a long time ahead of everyone at times in military spending. In second place in terms of the military budget, also already long years, China. On the third - Russia. The Chinese army is the largest in the world. Russia is the first in the world in terms of the number of tanks.

1. USA

Photo site army.mil.

Defense budget - $587.8 billion (nearly $588 billion)

5,884 tanks

19 aircraft carriers

13762 aircraft

The total number of ships of the Navy - 415

Army size - 1,400,000

2. Russia

Defense budget — $44.6 billion

20,215 tanks

1 aircraft carrier

3,794 aircraft

Army size - 766,055

3. China

Defense budget - $161.7 billion

6,457 tanks

1 aircraft carrier

2,955 aircraft

Army strength - 2,335,000

4. India

Defense budget - $51 billion

4,426 tanks

3 aircraft carriers

2,102 aircraft

Army strength - 1,325,000

5. France

Photo: page French Armed Forces on Facebook.

Defense budget — $35 billion

406 tanks

4 aircraft carriers

1,305 aircraft

Army strength - 205,000

6. UK

Prince Harry during military service. Instagram photo marines royal navy.

Defense budget — $45.7 billion

249 tanks

1 helicopter carrier

856 aircraft

Army size - 150,000

7. Japan

Defense budget - $43.8 billion

700 tanks

4 helicopter carriers

1,594 aircraft

Army size - 250,000

8. Türkiye

Defense budget — $8.2 billion

2445 tanks

Aircraft carriers - 0

1,018 aircraft

Army size - 410,500

9. Germany

Defense budget — $39.2 billion

543 tanks

Aircraft carriers - 0

698 aircraft

Army size - 180,000

10 Italy

Photo from flickr.com

Defense budget — $34 billion

200 tanks

Aircraft carriers - 2

822 aircraft

Army size - 320,000

11. South Korea

Defense budget — $43.8 billion

2,654 tanks

1 aircraft carrier

1,477 aircraft

Army strength - 625,000

It is worth noting that the most important criterion for evaluating the army is fighting. And this parameter is not taken into account by the Global Firepower Index. Russia and the United States also have a clear advantage here, for example, over China. Russia was at war with Georgia and, how should I put it, probably with Ukraine. Plus spends military operation in Syria. And the United States fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is also involved in operations in Syria.



A powerful and combat-ready army is the key to a significant weight of the country in international arena. Moreover, in connection with the well-known events in Syria and Ukraine, more and more often military power different countries is given the closest attention. Many ask the question: "Who will win the world war?".

Today we present an annually updated, official ranking of the armies of the world, a list that includes the most powerful armies in the world in 2017.

When compiling a rating, the comparison includes:
- number of armies of the world (regular number of troops, reservists)
- weapons (aircraft, helicopters, tanks, fleet, artillery, other equipment)
- military budget, resource equipment, geographical position, logistics.

The nuclear potential is not taken into account by experts, however, recognized nuclear powers get a ranking advantage.

By the way, San Marino had the weakest army in the world in 2017 - only 80 people.

10 South Korea

Korean army- the third in Asia in terms of numbers - 630 thousand military. The country has a very high number of military personnel per thousand inhabitants - 14.2 people. Defense budget of Korea - $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 inhabitants of the country.

7 Japan

The Japanese army is the seventh in the list of the best. The combat-ready part of the army has 247,000 servicemen. With such a large number of armed forces, the country has a huge defense budget - $49 billion.

6 UK

The country's military budget is $53 billion. The number of British armed forces - 188,000 military - is the smallest army in the ranking. But Royal Navy Britain is 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 is the Chinese army, with 2,333,000 troops. Wikipedia indicates 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 surpass almost all the armies of the countries of the world in terms of the power of weapons in all branches of the military - air, land and sea. population Russian army for 2017 - 798,000 people. The military budget is $76 billion. Among the superpowers, Russia has a very high number of military personnel per 1,000 inhabitants - 5.3 people.

1 US

The strongest 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 not taken into account by experts. The US Army has 1,492,200 men and a defense budget of $612 billion.

Russia ranked second in the ranking of the strongest armies in the world according to the American portal Global Firepower, losing only to the US army. In total, 133 states were included in the table. According to the compilers of the rating, their results are based on more than 50 factors that make up the so-called Power Index. The portal reports that the calculation formula allows smaller, but more technically equipped nations, like Israel or Japan, to compete with large developing states.

The compilers of the rating emphasize that the place in the table is not based on a simple sum of weapons and equipment available to a particular country - it takes into account the variety and nature of weapons in order to achieve greater objectivity. As an example, Global Firepower notes that having 100 minesweepers in service is much less strategically and tactically important than 10 aircraft carriers. At the same time, analysts give NATO countries a small bonus - after all, they have the opportunity for mutual assistance, as well as the exchange of resources and standardized materials.

  • Reuters

Russia ranked second due to the impressive size of the ground and armored formations, the compilers of the ranking note. According to the portal, today the number of so-called active personnel is 798.5 thousand people, plus 2.5 million military personnel in reserve. For comparison, in armed forces ah the United States, leading in the ranking, the number of active personnel is 1.3 million and another 990 thousand are in reserve.

In terms of the strength of armored formations, Russia left its competitors far behind (20.216 thousand units). In second place, by a wide margin, China follows (6.457 thousand units), while the United States falls into third place (5.8 thousand units).

The fourth place in terms of the number of armored units is occupied by the army of the DPRK, which in the overall standings of the Power Index took 23rd place with a score of 0.4218.

The top ten, in addition to the top three - the United States, Russia and China, includes India, France, Great Britain, Japan, Turkey, Germany and Egypt.

Ukraine took 30th place in the rating with a Power Index of 0.5664, losing to such states as Sweden, Greece, Spain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and still the same North Korea. At the same time, Ukraine managed to bypass a number of developed countries- Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and developing countries - Myanmar, Malaysia, Mexico.

Experts emphasize that the presence of a nuclear arsenal was not taken into account when compiling the rating, but the nuclear powers still received additional points. key factor became the presence of manpower, so the state with large population expectedly took the top positions of the table. Global Firepower analysts also took into account the geographical location, volume and quality of natural resources and the logistical flexibility of each individual state. And here politic system countries, as well as the nature of the management of the armed forces, were not taken into account by Global Firepower analysts.

This is not the first time the Russian army has been ranked among the top three most powerful armed forces. So, in April of this year, the German magazine Focus reported that the country was ahead of its opponents in terms of the number of tanks, becoming the state with the largest ground army. 126 countries were included in that rating.

According to the Global Index of Military Power, Russia consistently ranks second, second only to the United States, whose military budget is estimated at $581 billion. In addition to it, more than 40 different factors were also taken into account when calculating the index: human resources, the power of the Air Force and the Naval Forces, the volume of extraction of natural resources and the logistical features of countries. At the same time, the number of nuclear weapons was not taken into account.

  • American F-35 fighters.
  • Reuters

Concerns on the part of NATO countries and their satellites about the Russian army again came into the spotlight in late August, when representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense had to publicly refute speculation about the threat posed by the planned Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2017 exercises.

The West-2017 strategic exercises are held every two years and are aimed primarily at checking the combat readiness of the regional group of troops Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. This year the maneuvers are scheduled for September 14-20.

Despite the planned nature of the exercises, since the fall of 2016 (that is, almost a year before the start), Eastern Europe there were rumors of an impending invasion Russian troops. The officials of the Russian Federation and Belarus have repeatedly pointed out the false nature of such information, but the number of reports about the “Russian threat” has steadily increased.

“For several months now, the world's largest funds mass media, and after them politicians excite public opinion, spreading myths about the so-called Russian threat. The most improbable scenarios of the development of events are assumed. Some have guessed that the Zapad-2017 exercises are supposedly preparing a springboard for the invasion or occupation of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. None of these versions has anything to do with reality,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told the foreign military attache.

The defense capability of any country depends on the state of its army, and the government of individual countries allocates huge funds to maintain the army, which is especially important in difficult world conditions and the danger of terrorist attacks. To understand which army is the strongest, and which country this combat unit and not needed at all, it is worth exploring many factors, including territory, access to the sea and the ability to replenish resources. By studying these data, the experts managed to rank the armies of the world in 2017, and it included truly strong armies capable of protecting their country and helping their neighbors.

What armies are considered the most powerful in the world

It would be wrong, of course, to evaluate the army by the number of servicemen, because in this case, the more densely populated countries that do not have sufficient technical potential will always win. Therefore, the compilers of the rating, in addition to the number of military personnel and reservists, took into account the military spending of the state, budgeted, the state of the military-industrial complex, and many other factors. This does not take into account the nuclear potential of countries, it also does not matter whether the state has access to the sea, analysts also do not assess the political situation in the country, and in the case of countries such as Ukraine, this is extremely necessary to take into account.

  • The combat readiness rating of the armies of the world, and it includes paramilitary formations of five countries, is completed by Great Britain and its army, numbering over 150 thousand people. Units deserve special attention. special purpose And naval forces capable of performing assigned tasks in any region of the planet. From the main contenders for the title best army Great Britain lags behind in the number of equipment, including tanks.

  • Continues the ranking of the most strong armies World 2017 India, whose army today is in third place in terms of the number of military personnel, and this is over a million people, not counting about the same number of reservists who are ready to take up arms at any moment. In addition, the army of this country has one of the largest budgets, so military units constantly replenished with modern military equipment.

  • The largest army in the world in 2017, and this is not surprising, belongs to China, which ranks first in the world in terms of population. It is especially worth noting that in addition to the army itself, numbering more than 2 million people, under arms, if necessary, will be great amount reservists, and there is no doubt that they are ready for anything, since the age of service in the PRC army is 19-49 years. Among other things, the Chinese army has the second largest military budget in the world, and most of the money is spent on the introduction of technical innovations.

  • Not so long ago, the Russian army firmly occupied the second place in the world, but after some events, many experts began to talk about the dominance of the Russians in this matter. Although less is spent on defense in Russia than in China, the combat effectiveness of the Russian army is one of the best in the world, and this is proved by recent events that have taken place in the world. In terms of the number of personnel, the Russian army is approaching India, but technically it is much better equipped, and special attention deserve the Russian Aerospace Forces, rocket troops and air defense forces.

  • The table of armies of the world 2017, compiled by experts on the basis of many indicators, suggests that the strongest army in the world is the US army. The Americans spend a lot of money on it, and in terms of the amount of spending on military purposes, the United States is out of competition. The US Army also exceeds Russia in terms of the number of military personnel - this is over 2 million people, but the quality of the army raises more and more questions. As for the technical arsenal of the armed forces, it is becoming increasingly difficult for America to compete with Russia.

The other day, experts from an international analytical group published a rating of the armies of the world in terms of the level of military power of Global Firepower (often the analytical structure itself is also called in the same way). The level of military power was determined by the classification of the mentioned group. The index of military superiority of some armies over others is published in Lately annually and takes into account such indicators of the armed forces various countries as the ratio of the strength of the Armed Forces to the population of the country, the composition of the Air Force, the Navy (Navy), the number of tanks, as well as the volume of the defense budget. It is important that the level of military power in this case does not take into account the country's possession of nuclear potential.

In total, in 133 countries of the world, the army of each of which has been assigned a certain coefficient. Moreover, in this case, the principle of inverse proportionality works: the lower this coefficient is, the greater the total power of the armed forces of a state is considered.

The top three countries in terms of global power in this ranking are as follows.

At the first place - USA. The declared indicators are: the coefficient is 0.0857, the population is 323.9 million people, the number of armed forces is 2.36 million, of which 990 thousand are reservists. The number of aviation assets - 13762 aircraft and helicopters, of which 2296 are fighters, 947 - attack helicopters. The total number of tanks in the US Army is 5884 units. The number of warships of the US Navy is 415, of which 19 are aircraft carriers, 70 are submarines. Defense budget american army, as is known even without the compilers of this rating, it cannot be compared with the military budgets of other countries of the world. Its total volume, named in Global Firepower for 2017, amounted to $588 billion. And this is only the "unclassified" part of the Pentagon's treasury.

In second place, the compilers of the rating place Russia with a coefficient of 0.0929. Russian population figures (about 142 million people are indicated) differ from official data in the Russian Federation for the reason that foreign analysts continue to pretend that Crimea is not part of Russia.

Indicators for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Global Firepower: strength - as much as 3.37 million people. It was decided to include in this value everyone who is not only in the personnel of the Armed Forces of the country, but also reservists plus civilian personnel. The direct personnel composition is indicated at the level of 798.5 thousand military personnel. Just a few days ago, information was published on the full strength of the RF Armed Forces according to data not from foreign experts, but directly from the RF Ministry of Defense. The statistics (published by TASS Global Firepower) are actually as follows: 1 million 13 thousand 628 military personnel.

As can be seen, the scatter with the data of foreign "partners" differ not only in terms of population, but also in terms of the strength of the Armed Forces directly.

The statistics in Global Firepower for Russia are as follows: aviation means - 3794, of which 806 are fighters, 490 are attack (attacking) helicopters. Number of tanks: 20216. Number of warships in the Navy: 352, including one aircraft-carrying cruiser (Admiral Kuznetsov) and 63 submarines. The military budget of the Russian Defense Ministry in 2017 is estimated at $44.6 billion.

Closes the top three Chinese People's Republic . The coefficient in this case is 0.0945. The indicated population is 1.373 billion people. The number of PLA (People's Liberation Army of China) is 3.7 million, of which 1.45 million are listed as reservists.
The number of military aviation assets in China is 2955, of which 1,271 thousand fighters and 206 attack helicopters. If these statistics are to be believed, then the Chinese army has overtaken and surpassed the US army in terms of the number of fighter aircraft, and has surpassed it by almost 50%. This information from Global Firepower is in conflict with information in Chinese official sources. The Chinese themselves claim that the number of fighters various modifications, including the Russian Su-27 and Su-30, is no more than 950 units, of which about 500 are Chengdu J-7. Wikipedia gives almost 1,500 fighters altogether, including in their total number aircraft that are not physically in the PLA Air Force, but contracts for which have been concluded.

The number of tanks in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, according to the compilers of the global rating under consideration, is 6457. The number of warships is 714. If you believe this value, it turns out that China's combat fleet is almost twice as large as the US Navy's combat ship structure. It is specified that among these 714 warships there is 1 aircraft carrier, 51 frigates, 68 submarines, 35 corvettes, etc. The Chinese defense budget is said to be $161.7 billion. official statistics on the defense budget, published by the Chinese media, is as follows: 151.8 billion dollars.

In the top five in terms of military power, such countries of the world as India(4th place) and France(5th). It is noted that the population of India is about 110 million less population China, while the total number of armed forces, including reservists, is declared at the level of 4.2 million people, which is half a million more than in China. The Indian defense budget exceeds the Russian one and is about $51 billion. For comparison: the military budget of France with the 5th announced line in terms of military power amounted to 35 billion US dollars in 2017.

Places from 6th to 10th were distributed as follows: Britain, Japan, Türkiye, Germany and (rather surprisingly) Egypt. At the same time, the “Egyptian Navy” section indicates the presence of two aircraft carriers. We are talking about helicopter carriers that France sold to Cairo after the well-known sanctions against Russia. The presence of these ships, according to the compilers of the rating, allows Egypt with a military budget of $ 4 billion and 454 thousand military personnel to bypass in the rating, for example, Pakistan And South Korea .

On the 15th position, the compilers of the rating put Israel, noting that the military budget of this country is one of the most impressive per capita in the world. With a population of 8.1 million and a military force of 168,000, the budget is over $15.5 billion.

North Korea was given the 23rd place (and why, then, are the USA, Japan and South Korea shuddering? ..). And the most "cool" army in Europe - Ukrainian - 30th position. By military power Ukraine estimated so that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already on the 14th position above the army Syria, 19 lines above the army The Republic of Belarus and 28 above the sun Azerbaijan.