Global Firepower Military Powers Ranked for 2015

With respect LTC Jason Strickland, all the rankings in the world do not account for the fighting spirit, training, or morale of the people operating the weapon systems. All the technology in the world doesn't matter if the human element is lacking. The human element is an intangible. I say that because no ranking system is going to be able to get an accurate picture of the Sailors, Soldiers, Marines, and Airmen fighting in a country's armed forces. There are too many nations, too many service people within those nations, and there is no way that all of those nations are going to be open to having their service members participate in that type of study.

We will always trail Russia and China in # of artillery and MLRS systems.

Plenty. That's how much military we have, especially when augmented by our isolated location and technological superiority and economic superiority and global leadership. In all of those things we might be #1 or #5 or #10 but plowing more cash into weapon systems is not a good use of funds. Working on coalitions, diplomacy, science education, and global stability through those same efforts in other countries are all better investments in "Defense" than any weapon system.