Quote:
Originally Posted by Antonio
according to this site (nuclear capabilities not taken into account):
http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp
Yet, the Russian defense budget is 10 times smaller, is this for real? I guess it really depends on the factors that they take in to account, but still the indices are almost identical. |
The article says the United States has the most powerful military force, not that Russia is "as good as".
All of us armchair warriors can sit here and debate who has the most powerful military, and we are all wrong. It's not really about how has the "biggest" or the "best" or the "most powerful". The US was defeated in Vietnam, The Soviet Union was defeated in Afghanistan, and China and India haven't really fought a real wear in the past fifty years. It has little to do with "most powerful" and everything to do with the determination of the government, support of the general public, geography, supply, fiances, and technology - or perhaps even the lack of technology.
At the very same time, it's hard to compare defense budgets. If I understand correctly, the lowest ranking position in the Russian army pays about $30 USD, while the lowest rank in the US army makes $1500 USD. (Someone please correct me if I am wrong, I might be totally off here.) The Russian defense budget might be 10 times smaller than the US, but that same amount buys 100 times as much.