/ world today news/ The American company Global Firepower publishes an annual ranking of the best armies on the planet. They were evaluated according to 55 parameters: in addition to the size of the armed forces and the number of weapons, technological development, financing of the military budget, the country’s transport infrastructure, access to petroleum products, mobility and combat experience were taken into account. What do military experts think about the results of this rating?
According to Global Firepower, the “most powerful armies in the world” out of 145 countries surveyed are the armies of the United States, Russia, China, India, Great Britain, South Korea, Pakistan, Japan, France and Italy.
Interestingly, the Israeli IDF is only 17th, the Ukrainian armed forces 18th, and the Iranian army 14th.
Germany, Great Britain, France
This rating has been published since 2006 and is considered one of the most reliable. Although, interestingly, it does not take into account the presence or absence of weapons of mass destruction in countries. But let’s give the floor to military experts.
The specialist of NATO armies, Alexander Artamonov, fully agrees that the Germans, who once became the inspirations of two world wars, are now not even in the top ten:
The Germans are far from the same now as they were in the First and Second World Wars. Spoiled by a well-fed life, they do not like and do not want to fight. As for the weapons, the cost of their “Leopards” of the first modifications (No. 1 and No. 2) is clearly visible in the summaries of the Special Military Operation. And even the most advanced “Leopard-4”, as it turned out, has tracks that are completely unsuitable for war “off the asphalt”, and the life of its tank gun is twice as short as ours.
But Britain being in the top five, he says, should be due more to a display of Anglo-Saxon solidarity than to the actual state of affairs:
The British Army’s fifth place raises questions. A nuclear weapon? There is, but it is foreign – the Americans gave it to them. Tanks? The vaunted Challenger with a gun developed in the 60s of the last century cannot stand up to our tanks at all. So the British, as always, are strong at sea, but not on land, and prefer to fight with someone else’s hands.
According to our expert, France looks much more solid, which, unlike Great Britain, deserves a place in the top five:
For some reason the French took only 9th position, even though they are clearly stronger than the British and have their own nuclear weapons, 5th generation aircraft and sell their weapons all over the world very successfully.
And in Southeast Asia…
From this region, China and South Korea made the top ten. According to Alexander Artamonov, this is fully deserved:
South Korea is deservedly among the first. They produce a lot of their own weapons, and their K-2 tank (an analogue of our T-90), of which the Poles are buying by the hundreds today, really has a chance to become the new main tank of NATO.
However, the expert believes that there are nuances:
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If the T-90 has been tested in war, then the South Koreans have not fought since the mid-1950s.
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They themselves have only 200 of these tanks. Yes, within a few years another 800 should be produced by order of Poland. However, a big question is whether the South Korean military-industrial complex will have enough silicon in this situation.
And how can we not take into account that next to it is the DPRK, whose tanks, of course, will be worse, but the artillery is beyond criticism. It is not for nothing that Comrade Kim says that if only South Korea asks, at the behest of the United States, to play the role of Ukraine here, half of the country’s territory (including the capital Seoul) along with the population will be swept away. without even crossing the border.
One 600-mm MLRS KN-25 is capable of firing six missiles every half minute at a range of about 400 km. This is at least twice the caliber of any available Western counterparts.
Only China has something comparable – their WS-2D MLRS also fly 400 km, and these missiles are hypersonic, which means they are not afraid of any Western air defense systems. And not only this.
Thus, in terms of submarines, the PRC has almost caught up with the USA, having 70 submarines (according to other sources – 73), including 16 nuclear ones. One of which, surfacing in 2006 on a torpedo attack range in front of the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, caused a lot of bad feelings among the Americans. So the PRC’s third place in the ranking is well deserved, and it’s a good reason for the US to think about it if they suddenly risk fighting for Taiwan.
Azohen vei! And our tanks are fast…
In light of the current events in Gaza, of particular interest is the rating of the IDF – the Israeli army, which our experts place much higher than the 17th place assigned to it by the Global Firepower rating. Among its strengths are modern weapons and logistics, the geographical factor (the small territory allows for the faster transfer of troops), the presence of 115 thousand reservists, a large defense budget (plus Western financial injections) and a significant, solid aviation – more than 60 modern aircraft , including the F-35.
American experts present the latter as a decisive advantage over Iran (14th place in the ranking), which has been armed with aircraft since the early 1990s, and therefore, according to them, Tehran supplies Russia with drones because it hopes to receive in return Su-35 from him to balance the situation in the sky.
Which, you see, is quite naive to hear today, because given that Iran already has not only a range of excellent UAVs, but also very long-range missiles capable of covering Israel, the IDF’s advantage in aviation can hardly be considered a decisive factor.
Not to mention the fact that Iran already has in its arsenal a hypersonic Fattah missile with a range of 1,400 km, whose recent tests were attended by Iranian President Raisi and IRGC chief Salami. In addition, not only Israel, but also the US does not have “hypersonic” today, so there is no one to deliver it to IS. But Russia has it… Let’s keep quiet – draw your own conclusions.
And most importantly, the various proxy groups are becoming perhaps the main weapon in hybrid wars today, and Iran has plenty of them at its disposal, from the well-armed Hezbollah to the Shia units in Iraq and Syria, not to mention the Yemeni Houthis. And that the IDF is not very good at quickly defeating even such a semi-guerrilla team as Hamas, the events in Gaza clearly show: the fact that Israel carefully hides both its losses there and the number of burned armored vehicles speaks volumes.
The main weapon of the Russians – for all time
Experts put our army in second place in the ranking after the US army. Which is also very controversial. Because the main indicator of the combat capability of any army, with all due respect to technology, is still the human factor.
Well, and combat experience, of course. As Alexander Artamonov rightly notes:
“Our army is the only one in the world that has, for the last 10 years, waged war against a regular army that is more or less equal to it both in weaponry and in the quality of personnel. Technically speaking, the U.S. Army, of course, is at its best – who would argue.
But let’s remember where the American infantry fought and how it showed itself during these years, even without counting its occupation in Afghanistan, which ended in a crushing fiasco? However, due to the presence of personnel with combat experience, I would rate our army in the first place in the rating”.
By the way, the Ukrainian army could easily claim second place if, due to the incompetence of its command, today it had not moved mainly to the cemeteries, retreating more and more into the trenches of forcibly mobilized and barely prepared “gun meat”.
So what?
The number of tanks, missiles, planes, the presence of atomic weapons – all this, of course, is good. However, the main criterion for the fighting ability of any army remains its fighting spirit and combat experience. And this is what the Russian army is doing well today. As it has always been.
If we remember Suvorov’s famous Alpine campaign, then in 1799, after the betrayal of the Austrians, who retreated from Switzerland, leaving their Russian allies without reinforcements, supplies and even without maps of the area, surrounded by the three times stronger French, who had covered all the surrounding mountains, then it is unlikely that, judging the situation according to the criteria of Global Firepower, anyone would bet even a penny on the Russian army. But then the 68-year-old commander told his “miracle heroes”:
We are on the brink of an abyss. But we are Russians and God is with us!
After that, winning a series of victories over many times the strongest opponent, the Russian army crossed the Alps on goat paths, along which the Swiss go only and only with mountaineering equipment, while dragging guns and even taking 1.5 thousand French prisoners with them. Then tell me that in assessing the quality of the army, the main thing is…
Translation: ES
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