The Militaries of the United States, Russia and China Since World War II this country has prided itself on its military forces. We decided long ago to be able to reply to a nuclear attack with a three pronged defense and it is nuclear bombs, land based nuclear missiles and submarine launched nuclear missiles. So far this has kept us safe, but lately wars have nothing to do with nuclear attacks and hopefully no country wants to be the first to launch a nuclear attack because they realize it could mean the end of their country even if they are successful in their attack. It could also mean the end of the world because a nuclear winter could be created where so much material is blown up into the atmosphere it could block the sun for years killing our food supply. The last thirty years or so has seen incredible buildups in some of the militaries around the world. The buildups have more to do with conventional weapons than nuclear ones. Since World War II the United States has felt Russia was the biggest threat to peace, but is this still true today? Maybe or maybe not. There has been quite a bit coming out in the news lately about the Russian military. The news has been talking about new Russian tanks, both conventional and robotic and as usual one would think after reading these articles the Russians have a superior military which could not be further from the truth. Another article came out recently claiming one third of the Russian army is very poorly trained. They are also sorely lacking in airplanes even though you would think the opposite. While some of their planes are very good, they are not produced in numbers. Some of the new aircraft which have been touted have only been produced in very small numbers of planes, because they were too expensive. It has been said the Russian Air Force is composed of only about 600 fighter planes which can fly at any given time. The Russian Air Force has a total of 2176 fixed wing aircraft compared to the United States with 5414. They are outnumbered in transport planes by us at a ratio of over 4 to 1. It is even worse for them with tankers. We have 476 they have 23. About the only area where they have an advantage is in helicopters and rotary wing aircraft. They have about 1,300 compared to our 218. These figures do not include our navy and army aircraft which when added give us an even bigger lead. An example is the US Army rotary aircraft, of which there are 3,500. If we add the planes from all the services, we get a huge amount. When we look at the Russian Navy, we have to realize much of it was lost when the Soviet Union Collapsed. President Putin would like nothing better than to be able to return to those numbers. Currently the Russian navy is comprised of about 323 ships of all different types. Sixty one of these are submarines. There are 39 attack submarines, 11 ballistic missile submarines, 8 cruise missile submarines and 3 special purpose submarines. The Russians also have one aircraft carrier which has been the butt of many jokes due to its problems. The rest of the fleet is composed of various types of ships with the Corvettes being the most at 78. If we compare this to the U.S. Navy this is what we find. The U.S. Navy has more ships and more in the categories which matter the most. We have 430 ships. We have 10 aircraft carriers and 1 under construction. It is said the navy wants to bring the number of carriers up to 12 in the future. We have 36 submarines of different types but we are planning to increase our Virginia class attack submarines from 15 to 36. Our Ohio class ballistic missile submarines number 14 and we are planning to increase the number to 18. Arleigh Burke class destroyers’ number 64 but that number will be increased to 76 in the future. Arleigh Burke class destroyers are more powerful than cruisers in World War II. The Russian army has 1,013,624 active personnel. The United States army has 1,333,334 active personnel. The American army is more experienced in warfare. This is all well and good but what about the Chinese they have been building up their force for a long time? The Chinese want to be able to compete in military terms with the United States, they also want to be able to rule the South China Sea. They have been building up their air force and starting to develop new planes instead of having to buy them from Russia. Their Air Force is called the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. The Chinese have 3,187 planes of which there are 1,222 fighters, 1,564 attack aircraft, 193 transports, 1,284 helicopters. You can see in this area they are still far behind us and this speaks nothing of quality. The Chinese Navy is building and doing everything it can to try and close the gaps it has with the U.S. Navy. The Chinese now have two aircraft carriers, the second is set to begin sea trials. It is important to note the second carrier was completely built in China. The total amount of ships in the Chinese Navy numbers 419. There are other inconsequential boats and such which have not been counted. The type of warship which the Chinese have the most of is the Corvette. They have 42. The Chinese have 76 submarines and almost 200 patrol vessels. Not all nations are building forces to protect themselves from the same people. For example, India and Pakistan are keeping their militaries aimed at each other. India has planes in separate forces much like the United States. One thing which could be a problem for the Indian Air Force is the fact their planes come from so many different countries which could make it hard to maintain enough parts in a conflict. The Indian Air Force numbers about 1,500 aircraft while the Pakistani Air Force numbers about 815, not counting unmanned aircraft. Pakistan has about 100 ships in its navy. India has approximately the same if you count the small ships. India has one aircraft carrier and 16 submarines. Pakistan has 8 submarines and no aircraft carrier. One problem for most countries who want to build an armed force equal to or superior to the United States is the cost. The United States spends more on its military every year than some countries have for a gross national product. It is impossible for Russia to match us since that is what helped bring on their collapse when they were the old Soviet Union. On the other hand, China is doing very well and has the best chance of matching us or even overtaking us in the distant future.
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