The 35 most powerful militaries in the world

[hhfarang]

Three things in this chart surprised me.

India is number 3

Thailand is not only on the list, they are number 24.

North Korea has the most (obsolete) submarines.

http://www.businessinsider.com/35-most- ... rld-2014-7

[dtaai-maai]

Forgive me if I'm a little skeptical, but given a choice between going to war against Poland (18th), Switzerland (27th) and North Korea (35th!! ), I know which one I wouldn't choose...

As of 2013, with 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel, it is the largest military organization on earth.[7] This number represents nearly 40% of the population,[8] and is the numeric equivalent of the entire population between ages 20 and 45.

[Big Boy]

The UK has an aircraft carrier? They must be referring to helicopters. 2 being built, but nothing operational.

[dtaai-maai]

HMS Queen Elisabeth, may God bless her, etc.http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28159485

[Big Boy]

Not operational for quite a while yet. Do we actually have any aircraft capable of flying from the deck when she does become operational?

[dtaai-maai]

Not operational for quite a while yet.

We'll have to stay on friendly terms with Switzerland in the meantime.

[Big Boy]

[STEVE G]

We'll have to stay on friendly terms with Switzerland in the meantime.

I was reading recently that for some reason the Swiss have more heavy tanks than the UK, they have 380 German built Leopards.

[pharvey]

Not operational for quite a while yet. Do we actually have any aircraft capable of flying from the deck when she does become operational?

Only if it's not cloudy...

Forgive me if I'm a little skeptical, but given a choice between going to war against Poland (18th), Switzerland (27th) and North Korea (35th!! ), I know which one I wouldn't choose...

I'd certainly agree there!

I'm also trying to find another report I read recently which (I'm sure) has vastly different figures regarding China's budget/spending and airforce.

[migrant]

If you take away Generals Thailand falls to 1,289th

[STEVE G]

If you take away Generals Thailand falls to 1,289th

The Thai military could compete on a few things though, golf courses, beach resorts, hotels and that kind of thing. The golf course we had in the Fleet Air Arm was lousy, it was only nine holes and you had to wait for aircraft taking off as it went around the end of the runway and we didn't have any beach resorts at all!

[hhfarang]

Another visual that brings aircraft carrier ability into perspective...

Chart.gif (77.52 KiB) Viewed 666 times

[Big Boy]

Yes, so that shows the UK's helicopter carriers as I suspected. The real aircraft carriers won't be operational for a while yet, and will be more than double the size of those shown.

[dundrillin]

As well as having very expensive military hardware I hope sufficient resources are being employed to protect against biotechnology weapons, cyber attack, dirty bombs etc. Wars are effectively won by crippling an enemies economy in today's world it would not need the traditional " hot war" to do that.

[Big Boy]

I've done a little bit of research on the UK carrier (because it interests me), and I see it is, in fact a fixed wing aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious. Problem is that the UK has no fixed wing aircraft that can fly from it.

It is being used as a helicopter carrier while HMS Ocean undergoes refit. When HMS Ocean comes back into service, HMS Illustrious will be withdrawn.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is due to enter active service in 2016 and HMS Prince of Wales enters active service in 2018.