Top Militaries..?

Question

I found a link once that had the numbers of the top 10 or 15 military powers in the world. It showed the number of troops in all the branches per country (Navy, Air Force, Army).. Can someone give me a link?

Answer 1

This is a complex answer and I don't have a link, but I wanted to answer to get you thinking.

The USA is uncomparable to other militaries in the world as it's unmatched. This comes from their ability to wage extended war. Economically they can wage a war for a long time, be conventional limited, total war etc...

While China can muster a massive military, what good will they be against a few smalltime well placed nuclear explosions...

It's very difficult to judge numbers vs advanced weapons...another thing is theatres of war...land, sea or air...and different land scenarios (ie,desert, snow etc)...an example would be the several massive land invasions of russia, last during world war two. German tanks froze in the snow and they were overrun, even if the weapons were better...

Another was the invasion of Greece in WW2. Italians came invaded with 4 to 1 numerical advantage and better weapons and faster and more tanks. Greeks not only beat them but they beat them so much that they actually gained a lot of territory. Numerous counterattacks yielded nothing by Italy. Germany came in 6 mths later 10 to 1 numerical advantage and advanced weapons and way more tanks to finally win the battle.

Also Australia has a tiny Army compared to everyone else, and it's very well trained and advanced in it's applications...It's SAS(same as US Delta Force etc) is superb and arguable first in the world, and easily in the top 3 according to military analysts...
With only 100 guys they went into Afghanistan on seek and destroy missions and identified targets for US Military to smash them, same as Iraq. They were feared as soldiers and professionals, and well respected by enemy and ally alike. Yet Australia could never afford 25,000 of 'em, the USA can because of reasons stated above.

Another interesting point is Israel. Advanced technology and prob 20 small to mid-size nukes...Military analysts clearly know that Israel can only fight small wars, based on airpower and bombing campaigns...if they fight a war for 2 mths, they will run out of reasources and will succumb in 6 mths, due to economic reasons...Even if they won, it would devestate their econmy as all factories would be turned to the benefit of the military and they could not afford a lenghty war. Whereas USA and a few other countries could.

Where I'm from Australia, with only a few hundred jet fighterbombers Super Hornets & FB-111's would devestate any local countries even with our tiny numbers(especially at low altitude at Mach 1.1 terain hugging FB-111). Yet how long could we maintain this!? Indonesia's ability to raise an army(200,000,000 population vs Aust 20 mil) would eventually overwhelm Oz with no help. also believe it or not, NZ has no airforce jet fighters! lol

A final example is Russia's capabilities. They have recently changed focus from maintaining an empire and an influence to just maintaining their own sovereignty and a nuclear edge. They've reduced their military numbers as they could not afford to pay them anymore, or maintain the high numbers and are now more effective than ever. Russia may not be able to get a fleet of ships or a division + equipment to anywhere in the world like they used to in 48/72 hours. Yet they have introduced their newest Topol missile(also rumoured to be the fastest nuclear missile)...hard to taget...and they still maintain their satellites with their heavy space capability and therefore military intelligence...so while they may be lower in numbers and dropped down the tables, I would still arguably put them at second. Also Russia has a lot of natural reasources.

My point is, it's easy to get statistics of numbers of soldiers and weapons etc and rate them in order.
Training, the capacity to wage extended war has to do a lot with how effective a military is, and I would suggest the ratings would then change dramatically when this is taken into account. Apart from the US military which has the best of both worlds, advanced weapons and economy to back it.

Answer 2

http://www.fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction=325&projectId=25 primarily deals with the US, but also has information on the weapons systems of other nations.

http://www.strategypage.com/fyeo/howtomakewar/databases/armies/default.asp

Individual links for Asian, European, and the America's

Answer 3

center for strategic studies

Answer 4

Go to www.globalsecurity.org

Answer 5

X-Navy...were bad !