India ranks among five most powerful militaries in the world. Who is at No 1?

It’s 2024 and the world is in the midst of two wars — the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war. There’s also a looming threat of West Asia plunging into a big conflict with Iran launching missiles at Iraq and Pakistan. Amid this turmoil and times of uncertainty, many countries are boosting their militaries and their firepower. And based on this, Global Firepower, a website that keeps track of global defence information, has released its annual rankings of militaries around the world. What do these rankings reveal? Which country has the world’s most powerful military? Where does India stand? World’s strongest and weakest militaries Global Firepower rankings assess 145 countries on the basis of their military strength. More than 60 factors such as number of troops, military equipment, financial stability, geographic location and resources are tallied to determine a PowerIndex score, where a lower score denotes a stronger military. According to their rankings, a score of 0.0000 is considered ‘perfect’. Global Firepower said in a release that “our unique, in-house formula allows for smaller, more technologically advanced nations to compete with larger, lesser-developed powers, and special modifiers, in the form of bonuses and penalties, are applied to further refine the list, which is compiled annually.” Based on these factors, Global Firepower has found the United States to have the world’s strongest military having a score of 0.0699, whereas Bhutan has been found to have the weakest military, with a rank of 6.3704.

According to the rankings, Russia, China, India and South Korea round up the top five militaries. On the other hand, Moldova, Suriname, Somalia and Benin join Bhutan with the least powerful militaries. Some experts have questioned Russia’s second position on the list of most powerful militaries. This questioning comes as Moscow continues to fight a war against Ukrainian forces, 693 days after it launched its ‘special operation’ to invade its neighbour. According to the ranking, the US has the strongest military owing to a combination of factors. One is the active personnel in the military — 1,328,000. Moreover, it has a whopping 13,209 aircraft, 11 aircraft carriers as well as 4,657 tanks. China, which ranks third, in comparison has 2,035,000 active personnel, 3,304 aircraft and two aircraft carrier. According to the rankings, China performs poorly on these parameters: oil consumption, natural gas consumption and shared borders. Notably, the list also had some changes from the previous year. South Korea has risen to the fifth spot while the United Kingdom has fallen down a notch. Moreover, Japan at the seventh spot and Turkey at eighth have climbed the rankings whereas Pakistan has fallen to the ninth position. [caption id=“attachment_13623922” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The US has been termed as the world’s strongest military. It has a score of 0.0699. A score of 0.0000 is considered ‘perfect’. File image/Reuters[/caption] India’s position in the rankings With a score of 0.1023, India has maintained its fourth position on the list of strongest militaries in the world. A breakdown of the ranking shows that India is lagging behind on a few criteria, namely its self-propelled artillery strength, its oil consumption as well as the tension at its borders with neighbouring countries such as China and Pakistan. According to Global Firepower, India’s military has 14,55,550 active personnel, while its paramilitary comprises of 25,27,000 men. Moreover, when it comes to air assets, India has a total of 2,296 aircraft, of which 606 are fighter jets and 869 are helicopters. When it comes to our naval strength, India is believed to have a total of 294 assets. Of this, two are aircraft carriers, 12 are destroyers and 18 are submarines. In recent times, India has been pushing to boost its arsenal through its Atmanirbhar programme, encouraging indigenously-made weapons. The year of conflict The rankings provided by Global Firepower assume even more significance as conflicts and war continue to rear its ugly head in 2024. The Russia-Ukraine war continues to rage with Kyiv seeking to reclaim lost territory, pushing Russia on the defence. There’s also the Israel-Hamas war that has surpassed 100 days. This war already is the longest and deadliest between Israel and the Palestinians since Israel’s establishment in 1948, and the fighting shows no signs of ending.

The war has also rippled across the West Asia region, threatening to escalate into a broader conflict pitting a US-led alliance against Iranian-backed militant groups. Almost immediately after the Hamas attack, Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon began striking Israel, triggering Israeli retaliatory attacks. Moreover, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have carried out a series of attacks on civilian cargo ships in the Red Sea. This has led to the US and UK bombing more than a dozen targets in Yemen, with the Houthis vowing a retaliation. Iran has also been attacking other countries in the region. It has struck Syria, Iraq as well as Pakistan. There’s also the looming threat of China. Beijing has vowed a ‘reunification’ with Taiwan, raising the spectre of a cross-strait war with stakes for regional peace and stability. Additionally, North Korea is also boosting its military strength and recently declared South Korea as enemy number one. With inputs from agencies