The 35 Most Powerful Militaries In The World : North Korea's ranking as a world leader for submarines

There's only one true way to compare military strength, and thankfully
 we haven't had the opportunity to compare powerful countries in
recent decades  — though with a powder keg in the South China Sea, standoffs in Ukraine, and proxy wars throughout the Middle East, we are alarmingly close.

For a simpler evaluation of military power, we turn to the Global Firepower Index,
a ranking of 106 nations based on more than 50 factors including overall
military budget, available manpower, and the amount of equipment each country has
in its respective arsenal, as well as access to resources.

[click image to enlarge]

The index focuses on quantity, ignoring significant quantitative differences
(North Korea's 78 submarines, for instance, aren't exactly state of the art).

It also does not factor in nuclear stockpiles — still the ultimate trump card in
geopolitics.
It also does not penalize landlocked nations for lack of a standing navy.

We've created a chart to compare the top 35 militaries according to the
Global Firepower Index.

The ranking, released in April, involves a complex set of data that is subject to
ongoing adjustments and corrections.

● Here Are The Key Findings From The Index:

America's investment in being the world's police force.

The U.S. clearly leads the world in military spending at more than $600 billion.
China is the closest nation to follow the U.S. at nearly $130 billion — still less than
one-third of America's overall spending.

According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(SIPRI), the U.S. has reduced its defense budget by 7.8% chiefly because of
America's gradual withdrawal in overseas military operations, such as in
Afghanistan and Iraq.

Russia has increased its arms spending by $88 billion and plans to
"modernize" its weapons arsenal.

The role of aircraft carriers.

Aircraft carriers contribute greatly to a country's overall military strength.
These massive vessels allow nations to project their force far beyond their borders
and across the entire face of the globe by functioning as essentially a mobile naval
and air force base.

Aircraft carriers can also carry drones, which significantly change the
global surveillance game.

The U.S.' absolute monopoly on these vessels significantly boosts the country's
forward operating power.

The U.S. has deployed an aircraft carrier toward the Persian Gulf to bolster its
sea and air power before possible strikes against ISIS in Iraq.

Russia has previously deployed an aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean to display
its seriousness in propping up Assad in Syria.

● North Korea's submarines.
An anomaly in the Global Firepower index is North Korea's ranking as a world leader
for submarines. North Korea's submarine lead is due to the fact that the country, in terms of pure numbers, has more submarines than any country in the world.

But these submarines are almost entirely unusable.
A third of North Korea's subs are noisy diesel-powered Romeos,
which have been obsolete since 1961.

These submarines have a weapons range of only four miles,
whereas a modern U.S. submarine has a weapons range of 150 miles.

By and large, this fleet is unsophisticated but durable, according to
the U.S. Department of Defense.

[Business Insider] by Amanda Macias, Jeremy Bender and Skye Gould
                            Jul. 10, 2014, 6:47 PM