What Matters: Global Firepower's 2024 Military Strength Rankings were released months ago. The United States secured the top spot, followed by Russia, China, India, and South Korea.

Details: The rankings evaluated 145 countries based on more than 60 criteria, including military size, financial resources, and logistical capabilities. The U.S., with its $876 billion defense budget and 13,300 aircraft, leads in military technology and resources, despite having fewer personnel than Russia and China.

Key Points: The rankings also highlight nations like South Korea and Japan, which are rising in military strength due to regional threats. This year's results reflect evolving global military power dynamics.

Global Firepower Releases 2024 Military Strength Rankings: U.S. Tops the List

The United States topped Global Firepower's 2024 Military Strength Rankings, which evaluated 145 countries and assessed them based on their respective military capabilities. Since 2006, GFP has released its findings.

The top five countries included the United States, Russia, China, India and South Korea. The U.S. scored 0.0699 (the lower the better), with Russia following a close lead with 0.0702 and China at 0.0706. Bhutan was at the bottom of the list with a power index of 6.3704.

More than 60 individual criteria were factored into the rankings, including the number of military troops, as well as financial and logistics capabilities.

"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," GFP cited on its website. "Trends do not necessarily indicate a declining power as changes to the GFP formula can account for this."

The U.S. Military: The Top Dog

The United States could boast the highest military expenditure in the world at $876bn, which secured its position at the top of the index due to its dominance in a range of categories from finance to available resources. It continues to stand out as a major player in technological advancements – notably in the aerospace, computer/telecom, and even the medical sectors.

The United States has a fleet of more than 13,300 aircraft, including 983 attack helicopters.

While not factored into the index, it is also worth noting that the United States also remains the world's largest military hardware exporter.

Size Matters – To a Point

Despite being on the top of the power index, the United States doesn't actually have the largest number of military personnel.

The U.S. currently has 2,127,500 military personnel – which is significantly fewer than Russia and China. By contrast, Russia has 3,570,000 personnel and China has 3,170,000, while India has the largest armed forces out of the top players with 5,137,550 personnel, according to the rankings.

It should be noted those countries maintain conscription or a form of mandatory service, which the United States does not. Moreover, the U.S. military's active duty strength is set to drop again in 2024. Nearly all of the branches of the United States military are failing to reach their recruiting goals – especially among Generation Z. In 2023, enlistment hit its lowest level since 1941, just before the United States entered the Second World War.

Military Rankings: Nations On the Rise

GFP also tracked the nations that could be seen as "on the rise" and these included South Korea, Japan, Turkey (Turkiye), Iran, Israel, Germany, Spain, Poland, Sweden, and Myanmar.

Several factors are at play for why these nations are seeking to increase their military might.

South Korea – a nation that was literally fighting for its very survival just six decades ago – has become an Asian arms powerhouse. The country had endured centuries of subjugation from China followed by Japan, and as a result, South Korea has been determined not to allow that to happen again. Though the country was traditionally heavily reliant upon the United States in supplying defense equipment to support its military force, it has become a major defense manufacturer. As of 2022, South Korea has a defense budget that is the world's 10th largest in size, but it has also become the world's 10th largest defense exporter, accounting for 2.1 percent of the world's total defense exports.

By being able to develop and grow its domestic defense industry, South Korea has further been transformed into a global exporter of military hardware and could overtake other exporters. Currently, South Korea is the only Asian nation exporting arms to NATO members.

Likewise, Japan has increased its military spending due to fears from China, and has converted its helicopter carriers into full aircraft carriers; while NATO members Germany and Poland have respectively increased defense spending as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Sweden has also seen a potential threat from Russia – so much so that the historically neutral Nordic country has sought membership in NATO. 

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].

Image Credit: Creative Commons.