Comparing Forces.
There is a lot of talk lately about how the United States armed forces are becoming weak and how we need to spend far more money to beef them up. I decided to look for the latest comparison figures I could find, I just don’t believe what we have been told because too much of the money in the defense budget has gone missing or has been spent on programs which have not produced a fully working weapon. What country should I start with I thought, then I realized it had to be the one we continuously have considered an enemy for so long and that had to be Russia.
If we look at available manpower we realize this is not very relevant anymore, because of the power of our weapons, but I will tell you anyway. The United States is estimated to have available manpower of 320,212,012 while the estimate for Russia is 142,470,272. Not all this manpower could be used in the service, because some people are not fit. The real figures would be 120,022,084 for the US and 46,117,271 for Russia. If we compare active militaries we find the US has 1,400,000 people and Russia has 766,055. Russia does lead us in active reserves however. We have 1,100,000 and they have 2,485,000. The United States has 13,892 aircraft of all types while the Russians have 3,429. We have a force of 13,892 helicopters and the Russians have 1,120. They fare a little better on attack helicopters. We have 920 and they have 462. The US has 2,797 attack aircraft and the Russians have 1,305 and we have 2,207 fighter aircraft and the Russians have 769. Transport aircraft are very important and the US has 5,368 and the Russians have 1,083. We have 13,513 working airports and the Russians have 1,083. The US is beat by the Russians in tanks. The US has 8,848 and the Russians have 15,398. The US has 41,062 armored fighting vehicles and the Russians have 31,298.
With the advent of missiles and rockets artillery is not as important as it used to be so even though we are outnumbered 3 to 1 in towed artillery pieces it doesn’t mean much. The Russians have us beat on Multiple Launch Rocket Systems. We have 1,331 and they have 3,793 and their merchant marine is larger. We have 393 ships and they have 1,143. We do have more ports than they do. We have 24 and they have 7. There are many ships flying flags of other countries which are carrying our goods. Our fleet has 473 ships and the Russians have 352. We have 20 aircraft carriers and the Russians have 1. Our submarine fleet has 72 boats and the Russians have 55. We have 10 frigates to the Russian’s 4 and 62 destroyers to the Russians 12.
Before going any further I think it is important to note we have to take into consideration the capabilities and age of all the weapons and the United States has far newer ships and in some cases weapons. It is true the Russians have some very good planes and their newer tanks are said to be efficient, but they also have some aging weapons. The United States doesn’t not have any corvettes in their fleet while the Russians have 74. A corvette is the smallest ship considered a true warship and is smaller than a frigate. Below a corvette is a patrol boat. The United States has an annual defense budget of $577,100,000,000 while the Russians have an annual defense budget of $60,400,000,000.
The other country we are considering our enemy, yes we feel we always need an enemy as an excuse for weapons purchases, is China. They have a far greater manpower availability of 1,355,692,576 with the amount of people fit for service of 618,588,627. This is double the population of the United States. They also have twice the amount of active reserves we have at 2,333,000. China only has 2,860 aircraft. 908 helicopters and 196 attack helicopters. They have 1,311 attack aircraft, 1,066 fighter aircraft and 876 transport aircraft with 507 working airports. They do have 9,150 tanks and 4,788 armored transport vehicles. The Chinese have 6,246 towed artillery pieces and 1,770 multiple rocket launchers. Their Merchant Marine dwarfs ours at 2,030, but they have less ports than us with 15. Their fleet is larger than ours with 673 ships but they have only 1 aircraft carrier. They possess 67 submarines, 47 frigates, 25 destroyers and 23 corvettes. Their annual defense budget is $145,000,000,000. So far our ships are of a higher quality. The US has more nuclear submarines and for many years the Chinese nuclear missile launching submarines could only launch short range missiles. They are said to have solved this problem in their newer nuclear subs. There are said to be 6 missile launching nuclear subs in the Chinese navy and 6 nuclear fleet submarines.
I thought it might be interesting to see what our newest enemy Iran has. They have available manpower of 46,247,557 with fit for service of 39,566,497. They have an active reserve of 1,800,000. Iran has 471 aircraft, 123 helicopters and 12 attack helicopters. They also have 119 attack aircraft, 137 fighter aircraft, 196 transport aircraft and 319 working airports. They have 1,658 tanks, 1,315 armored transport vehicles, 2,078 towed artillery pieces and 1,474 multiple rocket launchers. They have 76 ships in their merchant marine with 3 working ports. Their fleet has 397 ships. They have no aircraft carriers, 32 submarines, 6 frigates, 0 destroyers, 3 corvettes and 111 patrol boats. Their annual defense budget is $6,300,000,000.
I am going to finish with North Korea. I guess you noticed I have not figured in any nuclear weapons, because anyone would have to be insane to use one. North Korea has 12,933,972 in available manpower with 10,066,704 being said to be fit for duty. They have 690,000 active military personnel and 4,500,000 active reserves. Quite a number for such a small population. It is said all their weapons are aging military hardware. They have 940 aircraft of all types, 202 helicopters, 20 attack helicopters, 516 attack aircraft, 458 fighter aircraft and 99 transport aircraft. They have 82 working airports. North Korea has 4,200 tanks and 4,100 armored transport vehicles. They possess 4,300 towed artillery pieces along with 2,400 multiple rocket launchers. Their merchant marine has 158 ships with 8 ports. Their fleet strength is 1,061 with 0 aircraft carriers, 70 submarines, 4 frigates, 0 destroyers, 2 corvettes and 375 patrol craft. Their annual defense budget is $7,500,000,000.
We have to take into consideration the age and condition of some of the weapons our supposed enemy countries have and the size of their military budgets before we can make an intelligent decision of how far ahead of them we still are, but in conventional forces we still have a big lead and if all the money sent to the defense department would have made it into our weapons programs and the weapons weren’t constantly going over budget, our forces would be twice the size.
