Could another country ever have more total military might than the US?

Answer 1

The best answer was ts_flander's. Mass armies as a measure of military power died at the end of WW1. Precision weapons and integrated intelligence "sensor to shooter" systems in the US military are now the true measure of military power.

Could another country surpass the US? Possibly. It would take concerted efforts to educate their populations, heavy investment in advanced networking and telecommunications technologies, large investments in military and intelligence research and development, and fighting wars to "tune" up the militaries. China could get there, and seem to have the will to do so. I don't see any other country with the right combination out there at the moment...

Answer 2

The Soviets came close...during the Cold War Days. Their technology was catching-up to the USA (though the USA still kept the edge in this regard) and they had the numbers in overall terms of troops, tanks, planes, missiles and ships. If you are looking now...well many people are hinging bets on China because of their massive population and the sheer size of their Military. But numbers do not mean much anymore in today's definition of military strength. China's troops may be vast in numbers...but unless their training actually comes even remotely close to that of the USA, and unless their command structure actually becomes more flexible (like the USA's) those numbers could just as easily translate into dead bodies being mowed down by machine-guns, tanks and smart-bombs. Their tank army is the biggest in the world...but something like 75% of their tank force are Type 59 and 69 tanks which date way back to the 1960s (again cannon fodder), and the remaining 25% can only match the basic M1 Abrams tanks (and they are absolutely no match for the M1A1 and M1A2s). The Air Force is also vast, but only the 500 or so Sukhoi Su-27/30s can really match the USA's air forces in any technological terms. The Navy has lots of destroyers armed with big anti-ship missiles and lots of submarines, but the US Navy's subs can finish them easily and the Chinese have no carriers. Finally the Chinese will need many rocket launches and tech investments before they can match USA information-gathering networks and significant space capability. Of course knowing the Chinese determination to have an invincible military (go look at the news boys and girls) they may eventually reach Soviet-power proportions (numbers plus good technology) but that wont be for another 25-30 years at least. But this will cost significant investments (something like double the USA military expenditures), and whether the Chinese can spend that much while allowing millions of their own people to stay poor is beyond me.

Answer 3

A war between China and the US would be costly. Could we win, most likely, what would it cost...probably at least, several hundred thousand lives. Right now, China is about the best candidate to be able to sustain themselves in a conventional war against the US. Our weapons systems are far superior the theirs and their numbers are negated by that technology. Also, they barely have a Navy, Our navy would be able to blockade them and essentially strangle them. The worst thing we could is get into a land war in their territory. China is a big place and they outnumber us greatly, of course I'm sure in the event of a war with china conscription in the US would be enacted quickly. At the begining of WWII the US had one of the weakest Armies of all the industrialized nations, By the end of the war we had over 12 million people in uniform, and that's when this country had half the population of what it does today.
We have the capability of mobilizing very quickly....now the a big problem we would have is in information warfare. China is aware of her weaknesses so she would compensate by exploiting some of ours. They know that the US is dependent on technology both in and out of the military. Imagine them launching an electromagnetic pulse in the Upper atmosphere which essentially would fry all electronic equipment in a huge swath of the US. This could be achieved through the us of a nuclear explosion over the US...not in..but over....Also, they have very good hackers, I'm sure that they would be very diligent in trying to incapacitate our infrastructure here in the states by releasing Computer viruses that would be aimed at our power grids...It's all very complicated...the bottom line is that if either country went to war with each other, they would both be slitting their own throats.

Finally, Russia....they still have several thousand nuclear weapons which always makes them a VERY potent adversary.

By the way, china has 1.2 billion to our 300 million... There is only 6 billion people in the entire world.

Answer 4

Powers are always prepared for the last war, and technology is both fragile and ephemeral, China would win if a war started between them and US today. If us wasto invade Korea China would have to react to defend Manchuria, they always have for about 3,000 years. Russia has a high level of interest in the area and as much as they fear China it is unknowable which way they would go if war started
Germany thought that they had the world by the nuts in 1936,7,8, they had the strongest economy and they had the leading tech, Russia was like china today, rapid growth and developing tech.
Russia won

Answer 5

China. The Chinese government has found Capitalism. The country is doing very well over all economically. Given the shear number of citizens and with a growing amount of wealth, they may be the next Super Power. It is something of interest to me to watch as their country is beginning to resemble a more free country and our great nation is moving ever so slowly to remove our freedoms.

Answer 6

Take 100 cruise missiles and place them in 100 different places on the globe. Add a satellite, sprinkle in some EXTREME GPS resolution, and just a dash of nuclear warheads...

Technology, baby!

No. Not in the next hundred years.

Now, if when you say "might" you mean the archaic notion of 'number of troops' then yes. And if they pick a fight they may hold onto them...for a few minutes until the moment of the bright flash.

Answer 7

No other country will need to, military/violence is an antiquated means of obtaining power. Financial might, vis-a-vis China holding $Godzillions of US debt, is the power play for the 21st century. The military-industrial complex needs war to stay alive - hopefully we will return to electing leaders who are not beholden to the neocon (failed) agenda.

Answer 8

Yes, eventually. The largest standing volunteer army in the world is India's. The largest army is China's. Both of these countries lack the armaments and technologies of the U.S., but they're gaining.

Answer 9

China and Korea rely on shear numbers of troops. That's the way you used to win wars. Now it is which country has the highest technology. No country can match us in tech weapon systems.

Answer 10

I believe that China has already done that so I guess it's a good thing we are friendly with them. They have like triple our military personnel. Their reserve troops out number our full time military alone.