America has 1.328 million men and women in uniform. India
has 1.455 million active duty personnel. Russia has 1.13 million. North Korea
has 1.28 million active duty personnel. Nevertheless, the largest military in
the world belongs to China. Their Peoples Liberation Army has 2.04 million.
However, these numbers are a bit deceiving. Although China
has the largest number of active duty troops, when reservists and paramilitary
are included, China has only the fourth largest military in the world with a grand total of 3,045,000. India’s
military jumps up to third place with 4,246,000 which includes 1,155,000 reservists
and 1,616,050 paramilitary units (compared to China’s 510,000 reservists and 500,000
paramilitary).
Russia has a total of 3,203,000 under arms including 1,500,000
reservists and another 569.000 paramilitary. As an aside, Ukraine has only
990,000 individuals in uniform of which 730,000 are regular military with no
reservists and 260,000 paramilitary (not including those forcibly conscripted).
The world’s largest military is actually North Korea which
has essentially militarized its entire military age population! It has
1,280,000 regular troops, 600,000 reservists, and a whopping 5,7 million
paramilitary personnel, bring its total to 7,580,000 men and women under arms.
By comparison, South Korea has 3,100,000 reservists and 3,013,000 to augment
its regular military of 500,000, bringing its total to 6,613,000, making it the
second largest.
There’s an old expression that America could never be
invaded because behind every rock, tree, and bush, will be someone with gun.
Although there are no official numbers, estimates
are that approximately 32% of Americans own at least one gun. That’s about 82
million gun toting Americans.
Of those, some 14.4 million classify themselves as active
hunters, meaning they’re probably a pretty good shot (additionally, some 25.87
million Americans has hunted at least once and those numbers don’t included the
number of individuals who shot skeet, target shoot, and enjoy “plinking” (shooting homemade targets like garbage can lids,
bottles, cans, and the occasional speed limit sign).
Broken down by individual household, guns can be found in
44% of households. While other countries, like Switzerland and Serbia, have
high gun ownership, no other nation even comes close to the U.S. in terms of
gun ownership.
As an aside, Montana has the largest percentage of gun owners
of any state with 66.3% of residents owning at least one firearms followed by
Wyoming with 66.2%. It’s 60% in Idaho and 59% in West Virginia, while around
the Ozarks, it averages 56% of households. In Kentucky, it’s just over half with
54.6% of the population owning at least one firearm. Texas is surprisingly low,
with just 46% of the population own a gun, which is less than in Maine where
47% and Vermont at 51% owning a firearm.
Another factor to consider, like it or not, is that guns are
a part of the American persona. They go hand-in-hand with freedom and
independence. It’s just not part of our
history, it’s part of our culture and our collective American mythology as a
nation from the frontiersmen and “mountain men” to the Wild West and our very
founding as a nation.
Firearms and the notion of self-defense from a tyrannical
government was seen as so important, ownership of firearms was built into our Constitution.
As long as Americans own firearms, this
country will never be invaded. But there is more to national defense than just
pistols and rifles.
Who has the largest air force? In terms of most modern and
powerful, that goes hands down to the United States with roughly 14,486 manned
and unmanned aircraft. Russia is ranked second in the world with approximately 4,211
aircraft while China possesses 3,304. Next on the list comes India with 2,296,
Japan with 1,459, and Pakistan following closely behind with 1,434. South Korea
has 1,171 aircraft compared to North Korea which possesses just 951.
It bears mentioning
that the individual branches of the U.S. military have more airplanes,
helicopters, and drones than the entire air forces of most countries! For example, the U.S. Army has some 5,714
aircraft compared to entire Russia military which has a total number of planes
and helicopters of 4,211. Of course, being former Navy, I have to mention that
the best pilots in the world are U.S. Navy pilots.
China is second with
730 deep water ships, including two operational aircraft carriers (and a third
on the drawing board) along with three helicopter carriers. As an aside, China
also has the most modern military navy in the world, turning out more new ships
than any nation. 70% of its ships were built after 2010 compared to just 25% of
the U.S. Navy.
Third place belongs to North Korea with 505 ships, though analysis
question their operational status given shortages of replacement parts. North
Korea also doesn’t possess any aircraft or helicopter support ships (South
Korea has 200 military ships). Next, in fourth place, is the United States Navy
with 11 aircraft carriers and nine support helicopter carrier ships.
The U.S. Department of Defense published a report in 2024
noting that the Navy was badly in need of a total fleet overhaul; everything from
drydocking its fleet for a refit to retiring some of its submarines, destroyers,
and even a carrier or two (the DoD was also critical of the wartime capabilities
of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army. Only the Marines were said to be a proper
fighting strength).
Following the U.S. is Sweden, which has traditionally been a
seagoing nation for centuries. Sweden currently has 353 deep water naval vessels,
followed by Indonesia with 333 military ships. Italy has 309 while India and
Thailand have 294 and 293 respectively. The largest navy in South America is
Columbia which stands at 237 followed by Mexico with 194. In Africa, Algeria
has the continent’s largest navy with 213 ships. Egypt is second with 140
ships.
In fourth place is Iran which operates 25 conventional
attack and miniature submarines throughout the Persian Gulf. Egypt has the largest submarine fleet in
Africa with eight Type 209 conventional subs
it acquired from Germany (who know a few things about submarines). Algeria has
six and South Africa has three, also Type 209.
Lastly, nukes. What nation has the most? Russia is believed
to have 5,500 nuclear tipped missiles in various stages of readiness. The U.S
has some 5,000 nuclear armed missiles, also in varying stages of readiness.
China too has nuclear missiles (around
600) as does France (290), the UK (225), India (180), Pakistan (170), and
Israel (90).
North Korea claims to have around 50 while Iran is
desperately trying to become the newest member of “global damnation club”. It deserves mentioning that in terms of
missiles in general, Russia is also thought to possess the largest number of
missiles, especially Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles or “ICBMs”, both
nuclear and conventional. China is also busily expanding its missile capabilities.
All told, there are
approximately 12,331 nuclear weapons at play, down from about 70,000 during the
Cold War. These range from so-called “tactic” or low yield warheads which have a explosive
capability 20 times that of what was used as Hiroshima and Nagasaki up to a
three stage thermonuclear warhead (the Soviet era “Tsar Bomba”) whose explosive
output is 1,570 times that which was used on the two Japanese cities. Anyway,
you look at it, in a nuclear exchange only cockroaches would survive.
In the final analysis, we seem to be pretty good at
developing ways to kill each other. In a world where poverty, hunger, and
disease is on the rise, and budgets funding social safety nets are being cut, the
budget for the “defense” is virtually unlimited. We kill to gain access to and
protect resources or global markets. Besides, war is profitable.
War artificially stimulate economies and reduces unemployment
and regulates “excess” populations. Most of our scientific and medical advances
are byproducts of weapons research (but then, so are many of our new diseases).
It pits us against each other in order to protect the “haves” from the “have
nots”. Hell, we’ll even kill each other over whose god or prophet is the most
benign. Many of us pray for a divine or even alien intervention to put a stop
to our species based insanity. But the sad truth is that no one or nothing is
coming from the sky or anywhere else to save us. We’re on our own babies.
Thank you for reading "Another Opinion", the
Op/Ed blog page for the "militant middle". Here at
"A/O" we truly value our readers. At A/O we seek the facts as
they exist, not partisan talking points. We hope you find our
articles informative and engaging. Comments are welcome, provided they are not
vulgar, insulting or demeaning. Another Opinion is offered without
charge and is directed toward all independent and free-thinking individuals. We
ask, however, that you "like" us on whatever platform you found us on
in order to keep our articles available for free to others. Lastly, in order to
keep costs down, we depend on passive marketing, and therefore, depend on our
readers to please forward our posts along. Below you will find links to
the sources we used in writing this article. Thank you.
Mapped: US States With The Most Guns
Largest Air Forces in the World
U.S. Military Working on Rebuild Readiness and Modernize
Why the U.S. Military is in Serious Trouble
Top 10 countries with the largest submarine fleets in 2025
Which countries have nuclear weapons?
No comments:
Post a Comment