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Subject: Top Ten Armies of the World
Arditi    3/4/2004 3:54:10 PM
According to the CIA and other Intelligence Services (European, Asian, African) this is the tally - based on a Combination of Manpower, Technology, Firepower, Training, Resources, Available Reserves, and Nuclear Potential (Current or Likely):
1. USA
2. China
3. Germany
4. India
5. France
6. Russia
7. UK
8. Italy
9. Israel
10. Pakistan
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/4/2004 4:01:55 PM
The CIA has made AND published a list? I find that a teensy bit hard to belive. Do you have a link?
 
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Arditi    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/4/2004 5:54:36 PM
The Listing is from a Book "The World's Almanac" or something like that - published two years ago. There are no Authors other than from "CIA DATA." The evaluation is based on readily available/published information - hardly a secret. It is my understanding that the Almanac is published on a Yearly basis.
 
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fall out    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/4/2004 7:10:46 PM
apart from the US, i dont agree with any of the other spots on the lists. manpower aint everything brother (ie China). ;) Now and the future belongs to quality, not quantity.
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/4/2004 7:17:37 PM
Who is the book published endorsed by? Janes? I agree with fallout. Apart from the US's placement the rest seems mixed up. I mean with China in second place it seems to be based largley on numbers as China has little else. Then there is Germany, again this is all well and good but it's not a huge military and it's industry and technology are not that different from France's (I would say France is better) and France's armed forces are actually larger than Germany's so why is France after India who doesn't have that great a defence industry and who's only real advantage is size and nukes. I could go on but it would take ages. Can you post somemore details on the source of this list.
 
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Ex98C    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/4/2004 8:52:53 PM
Sounds like they are using the CIA wourld Fasctbook as a source....the only problem is that the factbook doesn;t do any ranking. I don;t know of anyone who would currently rank Germany as the 3rd most powerful military in the world
 
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fall out    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World - CIA   3/5/2004 3:59:38 AM
true, and the berlin wall is still up and the soviet union is still a threat! haha ;)
 
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sooner    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/7/2004 9:25:48 AM
This lineup is a complete joke. Sorry. China, Germany & India are way out of place. The UK is a little far down the list for my liking. Try again pal.
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/7/2004 9:29:13 AM
Sooner, I don't think arditis coming back. If I remember correctly his last words were "typical anglo response, I can see my intelligence is lost here so I won't be returning" what a strange little man (?) he was. I'll miss him (I could have done with a laugh) :-)
 
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Gray    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/7/2004 9:31:47 AM
I do note that Arditi said 'armies' not 'armed forces'. The British army is only around 105k strong so it seems reasonable, even if man-for-man you think it's the best then it wouldn't be in the top 3. I would imagine that this list is simply rated on the basis of *put the entire army on a continent of varied terrain and let it fight the other army* regardless of the air or how it got there. In which case the list looks a little more reasonable, no? Just playing devil's advocate!
 
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sooner    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/7/2004 10:49:14 AM
Fair enough. In that case, this defeats the purpose of creating posts like this. What he was proposing isn't debatable, just fantasy. If you want to talk about military strength, include all variables. I see your point, however. Brilliant post might I add.
 
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Ad    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/7/2004 12:28:54 PM
The point is that only the US, Britain and France have projection capabilities (in that order), so the top three armies would be; 1)US 2)Britain 3)France The rest don?t matter as your not likely to see them marching up your road any time, ever.
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World - Gray   3/7/2004 12:40:15 PM
Gray, even if he did mean it in the way you said the list is still not correct, in fact it's even worse. Do you think Germany (with about 280,000 in it ENTIRE armed forces) could face of against India (with arount 990,000 in it's army) without the luftwafee or navy? Or against Russia? I doubt it. Infact Germany would only be just above the UK and below France, since Germany only has 120,000 in it's army, while the UK has about 110,000 (niether including reserve). Also where's korea and many others?
 
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Nasty German Idiot    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World - Gray   3/7/2004 1:12:01 PM
280.000 is only the core, add 400.000 Reservists with their own equipment. (For example the Leopard 1 which were taken out of service, they can still cope with almost every tank the Indian Army has) and further 150.000 Border Guards which are not listed as "Combattants" anymore. They also have their own APC´s, Helicopters and Special Forces (GSG9 for example.) The Airlift capabilities and logistics are still being build up, that is true, but with A-400M, new NH90, MH90, new Generation of Light Vehicles, CH-53 upgrade etc. that will change in the next years. And there are already some 7500 Soldiers from Somalia to Afghanistan stationed abroad, so where is the lack of capability to sustain forces in other countries. If the Invasion of Iraq could not have been started from Kuwait and without month of time to get the equipment to Iraq you wouldnt have such a sucess there. And that is something that Germany could have done also, to bring equipment there by ship is really no difficulty.
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World - Gray   3/7/2004 1:52:03 PM
Germany doesn't have 400,000 reservists. You have 50,000 (ish). Where did you get 400,000 from? I got my numbers from the German army site. The full numbers are - Army - 123,837 Reserve - 48,003 Air force - 51,348 Navy - 19,874 Total - 243,062 Plus other non-combatants (civilian staff etc) the full german armed forces comes to about 270,000. That includes everything in the armed forces, if we including everything, Britain actually has more than Germany. Army - 109,000 TA - 73,800 Airforce - 52,000 Navy - 42,000 Total - 276,800 Plus other civilian staff etc the full number is about 305,000. The border guards are not soldiers and are not trained as such. It would be like sending armed police into a war, it just doesn't happen. "And there are already some 7500 Soldiers from Somalia to Afghanistan stationed abroad, so where is the lack of capability to sustain forces in other countries." 7,500 soldiers out of a 270,000 man force is not a huge expeditionary ability, the UK had 41,990 troops abroad in 2002 we then deployed 50,000 troops to Iraq bringing the total to 91,990 troops and is now at about 60,000; and we still have the ability to deploy more, that is an expeditionary force. "to bring equipment there by ship is really no difficulty." The German Navy has nowhere near the ability of France or the UK when it come to pretty much anything. Could Germany have got a 50,000 man force plus equipment to Kuwait in a few weeks? I doubt it. Germany is getting much better in this regard but is not there yet.
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World - mistake   3/7/2004 2:24:11 PM
Sorry made a mistake with the UK numbers, I only included the TA in the reserves number. Here are the true ones as of 2003. Army - 106,730 Army reserve - 154,559 Total Army - 261,289 Navy - 38,580 Navy Reserve - 33,374 Total Navy - 71,954 RAF - 49,700 RAF Reserve - 3,485 Total RAF - 53,185 Total Regulars - 195,010 Total Reserves - 191,458 Grand Total - 386,468 About reserves, I should say the UK has both the Territorial Army reserves and the Regular Reserves, however these are both seperate to the liable for recall. Our liable for recall (short notice) number is about 170,000. NB :- These numbers do not include civilians.
 
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