The age-old question, “Who is the strongest?” may have finally been answered. Defence website Military Direct released a study on the strongest military forces which showed China coming out on top, while India occupies the number 4 slot. Money may not be everything as the USA found out, coming home in second place. Russia followed close behind, trailed by India and France. The surprise of the lot was the UK, which barely made it into the top 10, coming in at the 9th place.The countries were given points, which denoted their respective “ultimate military strength index”. The index was calculated taking into consideration the various factors like the budgets, active and reserve personnel, total sea, air and land resources, average salaries and the equipment weight.
When all the parameters were considered and scores given, China tops the board with 82 points out of a possible 100.
The USA scored 74 points, Russia 69, India 61 and France bagged 58 points respectively. The UK racked up a meagre 43 points which explains why it is so low down the order.
The study mentions, “Based on these scores, which account for budgets, men, and things like air and navy capacity, it does suggest that China would come out as top dog in a hypothetical super conflict.”
When it comes to spending, the USA leads with a whooping USD 732 billion per year as its military budget. China is next with USD 261 billion, trailed by India at USD 71 billion.
The study further disclosed that with 14,141 aircraft, the USA would win an aerial war. Russia has 4,682 and China 3,587 aircraft respectively. When it comes to land, Russia is victorious, fielding 54,866 vehicles compared to 50,326 for the USA and 41,641 for China.
China would however dominate the seas, being able to deploy 406 ships against 278 Russian ships and 202 US or Indian ships.
The study is simply accounting for quantity and not quality or strategies and plans. China may head the list on paper but the ground reality may be altogether a different scenario.
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