India has Fourth Strongest Military in the World: Global Firepower List

Indian military has been placed as the fourth strongest in the world in a global index that ranks 133 countries on the basis of their global military prowess annually. India follows the United States, Russia and China (in that order), on the Global Firepower list (GFP) in 2017. The other countries that feature in the top 10 are France, United Kingdom, Japan, Turkey and Germany.

Global Firepower has been analyzing military data since 2006.

While Indian military has maintained its position in the top five military powers in the world since 2013, its western neighbor Pakistan broke into top 15 only last year. Pakistan is number 13 on the list.

According to GFP’s assessment, India is ahead of China in terms of total armed personnel, with India’s 4,207,250 personnel against China’s 3,712,500. China, however, has more active personnel, with 2,260,000 troops compared to India’s 1,362,500. India’s reserve components (2,844,750) are higher than China’s (1,452,500).

The Indian Army is equipped with 4,426 combat tanks, 6,704 armored fighting vehicles, and 7,414 towed artillery guns, as opposed to the Chinese Army’s 6,457 tanks, 4,788 armored fighting vehicles, and 6,246 towed artillery guns. Indian Air Force lags slightly behind its northern neighbor, with 2,102 aircraft as compared to China’s 2,955.

While the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers (three) outnumbers China (one), China has more submarines, destroyers , and a total naval assets when the judgement of maritime strength is made.

The list ranks a country’s military prowess on 50 parameters, including military resources, natural resources, industry, geographical features and available manpower. India and China’s rankings have been attributed to the sizeable number of armed forces personnel with the respective countries. As per the report, China looks to be in a position where it can topple Russia out of its second place, with more number of aircraft and naval ships. However, Russia’s current total tanks in service far outnumber China’s.

While the index didn’t count nuclear stockpiles for the ranking, it did give points for nuclear capability. The index also looked into the defense budget allocation. As per the report, China allocates over three times the amount that India has kept for its military.

The only area where Pakistan fares better than India is the number of attack helicopters, self-propelled artillery and waterway coverage.

Global Firepower spoke about their assessment methods in a statement: “Our formula allows smaller, though more technologically-advanced, nations to compete with larger, lesser-developed ones. Modifiers (in the form of bonuses and penalties) are added to further refine the list.”