Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The American magazine US News and World Report declared the Russian army the strongest in the world. This is because the Russian military has combat experience that no other army in the world has, not even Israel or the United States. More importantly, Russia’s combat experience is with wars of the 21st century, which are completely different from those of the previous century.
After the war in Ukraine, the organization of armed forces worldwide will be completely changed – and so will the actions of the detachments in battle. This will be entirely in accordance with the new standards of the 21st century. However, unlike other countries, including the US, Russia has such experience and has adapted accordingly with progress already made.
In the ranking of the strongest armies in the world, the US occupies second place in terms of military power, Israel third, and Ukraine takes eighth. The assessment of the army, in addition to combat potential (amount of weapons, number of soldiers, etc.), takes into account combat experience and participation in various wars and armed conflicts.
Due to these criteria, the Russian army found itself in the leading position for the first time, although previously, it was always in second or third place after the USA and China. Israel is now ahead of even China due to the wars with Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Iran. China, South Korea, Iran, Great Britain, Germany, and Turkey are also among the ten strongest armies in the world.
The authors of the list state that the power of the armies of various countries around the world was assessed based on a survey in which representatives of elites and business circles, as well as ordinary citizens, participated.
Nonetheless, even by these criteria, the Ukrainian army should be second on this list, not the US. This is because the Ukrainians have significant combat experience against the strongest army in the world—the Russian one. Furthermore, it is comical that the Ukrainians are being trained by the British, who had not fought a successful war since 1982 when Argentina attempted to reclaim the Falkland Islands through military force. Even the Ukrainians are humored at the fact that what the British teach them is of no use at the battlefront.
Israel should not be ahead of Ukraine for the simple reason that the country is fighting a weaker enemy because the Palestinians do not have aviation or powerful artillery and use old rockets. Although the Israeli army is one of the strongest in the region, in the world ranking, it should be behind Ukraine, while the American military should be in fourth place because although they are technically superior to all other armies with the latest weapons, submarines, and aviation, they are without the experience Russia has.
Therefore, Russia ranks first precisely because of its combat experience in the wars of the 21st century, including the Russo-Georgian War (2008) and the Syrian War (2015-), in addition to having an impressive military-industrial capacity and leading innovation.
The fact that the US Army took second place in the ranking of the strongest armies despite having a huge military budget that cannot be compared with any other military budget in the world shows that Americans do not spend money rationally and where it should be. In fact, Washington spends more money than several of the largest armies combined.
According to some sources, more than seven of the largest armies together, and according to some, more than nine. The American military budget in 2024 is a record $886.3 billion, while the Russian one is estimated at about $121 billion. Russia even spends less on military expenditures than China, which spends about $231 billion.
Looking to the new year, the Russian army’s prospects and challenges in the coming years include prioritizing rearmament, developing more modern regulations for combat operations and strategy, and fulfilling goals in Ukraine. Peace negotiations with Kiev are impossible as long as Volodymyr Zelensky is in power, and for this reason, the conflict in Ukraine will continue.
At the same time, war is an opportunity for scientific and technological progress. New types of weapons will be created, and they will be even more sophisticated than what currently exists. Now, new types of weapons are being made, the likes of which the world has never seen before.
The 21st century will be different, and the losses in war will be even more massive. Under these catastrophic conditions, it is Russia that is gaining valuable experience whilst the US continues to observe from the sidelines and can only learn from the mistakes made by its Ukrainian proxy.
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the us military is full of little volunteer mexicans looking for an easy paycheck. real americans dont want to serve next to them. the us military will find it harder to meet their recruiting goals. also specially the current personnel servicing navy carriers, submarine & other ships are a bunch of slackers who just can’t, or want to keep proper combat readiness. the us military has become like the soviet union: a big banana republic force with fancy war toys
you cannot learn to hate your country in college and universities and have the will to defend it.
we need at least a decade of maga in the white house, the senate, the house and supreme court to reverse that. and i think we looking pretty good on all those places
the derp is bursting out of you.
well you only learn what you’re stupid enough to believe.
“and in the end times the whole world shall be deceived” and ” the stench of corruption shall reach all the way to heaven” because “the love of money is the root of all evil”. the bible tells us as little children when we learn our lessons of life
this “russian army now strongest in world” was a us-made mocking article to russia, but sf tries to rebrand and reshape it, as if it was an honest essay instead of a newspaper duck. muhuhahah too funny !!!
hahahaha funny. listen lucky luber lips no nation on earth has consistently spent the amounts the us has on defense over decades. not even close. that’s why americans are living in tents, can’t afford doctors prices, or lawyers and are oppressed by pedophiles and drug traffickers in a nutshell.
yes, not to forget that the jews forced the whole us army to get deadly mrna injections. so the us army is dead from inside already – with its troops dead men walking – but without knowing it. all influencial big money jews have resettled their wealth to china – china is the rootcentre of evil jwo now. jews want the whole western civilization to die (which includes all european and american nations). this is what people here need to understand.
what are you talking about, ussr wasn’t banana republic, it was industrial superpower with strongest army, first man and woman in space, own aviation with the largest plane and helicopter of its time, wide middle class, no homeless, no people without work place, free education, medicine, homes and punishment for sodomy in the criminal code.
you just got a dose of american “reality”. most brainwashed tards on earth.
i have reading foreign press almost every day for 5 years before 201, including articles fron the past. i stopped it, because i realized that western msm are publishing one and the same lie. if you know all their scenarios (5 years is enough to learn), you know what they will write next. goebbels said: repeat the lies 1000 times and it will become truth. so i got a lot about this “reality”. ussr wasn’t perfect, that’s why it’s gone, but far from that picture in liberal msm.
yeah but when the state owns everything, 98% of personal initiative goes out the window.
what kind of initiative? private business? yes. rationalizing and innovations – no. if to compare economics before 1991 and after, previous type is much stronger, suffered no crises and overproduction, able to produce complicated hardware in shorter terms. just one example. combat frigates need 2-3 years to build in the ussr, now it’s 6 years and more. no manufacturing of long-range airliners (il-62, il-86, il-96), cargo planes (an-124), aircraft carriers.
the us is that, and always has been. the soviet union never was. thanks for derping.
don’t forget the wagner mercenaries he basically destroys the entire american army for his experience
pigs arse.
any ranking of israel as third is absurd.
yes, and id put china above us, a us without nato of course
the us army has too many gays and lesbians. trump will change that? nope
they used to just join the ymca and ywca. now they join the army and the navy.
isreal 3rd. i stopped reading. and you only have to cut us oil supply and their caput in 3 days
ussr………
today is the day of the october revolution.
don’t remind me.
lol fake news , the usual on this desinformation and russia propaganda
still, it’s not quite up to the fakery of ukraine posing as a vibrant democracy and not a fascist dictatorship that elevates its wwii nazi war criminals to founding father status and murders and terrorizes its own and neighboring civilian citizenry as state policy.
that fakery is hard to beat.
ursula and chrystia experience great climaxes thinking of how their nazi forbearers have been elevated to hero status by the eu and canada.
this rating (deriving from rat) is another crap. zionists have the 3rd position before china. don’t pay any attention to such crap and any western ratings, especially economic, “human rights”, “freedom of speech”, “prosperity”, “feeling of corruption” and so on, they are 200% rotten.