According to a report which took into account 55 different factors, Israel’s Power Index puts it in a high place out of 136 nations.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Israel’s army placed 16th in the world in 2018 by website Global Firepower, which just published its annual firepower index ranking the militaries of 136 countries. Though a drop of one spot from 2017, it’s not considered significant by the site.
The site’s algorithms looked at 55 factors, including such “bonuses” as belonging to NATO, (as these countries ostensibly have back-up on hand from allies) proven or suspected possession of nuclear weapons, financial health, transportation systems, industrial development and natural resources, and their global status – First, Second, or Third World.
The site acknowledged that some values processed by their in-house formula were estimated when official numbers were not available.
Out of the fifteen countries that topped Israel, Turkey (9) and Iran (13) are the only ones that are actively hostile to the Jewish state and close enough geographically to do anything about it, although of the two only the Islamic Republic is considered a strategic threat.
Israel v. Iran
When comparing the two regional rivals, Israel (14) by far outspends its Iranian adversary (33), $20 billion to $6.3 billion on defense, and has a huge advantage in terms of its Armored Corps.
However, more important in any confrontation with Iran is Israel’s air force, which has twice as many fighters and attack aircraft than Iran, and is generally considered one of the best air forces in the world.
In terms of its ability to attack Israel, Iran has clear advantages in its rocket launchers (1,533 to 148) and naval forces (No. 4 to Israel’s No. 37).
Iran boasts five times as many submarines, which could be a critical factor in terms of second-strike capabilities. The Islamic Republic also has thirteen times the available manpower as Israel, although only slightly over three times its active military personnel.
On the other hand, the website takes a country’s allies into consideration when calculating its strength, and Israel’s main ally, the United States, easily held its #1 ranking over Russia and China, respectively taking second and third place among the three strongest global military powers.
India, France, the U.K., South Korea, Japan, Turkey and Germany rounded out the top ten for 2018.
To put Israeli’s military spending in perspective, the U.S. spends $647 billion on defense – more than the next 15 countries put together.