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This is an all new kind of military comparison, because we are not matching a pair of nations,
but rather two against one.
According to Business Insider in 2018, this triumvirate of nations has the most powerful
militaries in the entire world, putting the USA in first, Russia in second, and China
in third.
Following these three countries are India, France, and the UK.
Now we already know that the USA spends more on its military than any other country – something
not all Americans are very happy about – but we also know that Russia has had a powerful
military for many years, and that China has more recently started to spend big.
So, what would happen if they teamed-up against the U.S.?
That’s what we’ll find out, in this episode of the Infographics Show, USA vs China & Russia
- Who Would Win.
The U.S. spends more on defense than the next nine countries in total, which is some feat.
When you look at sources for the military ‘base’ budget, most say it’s somewhere
between 587 billion and 597 billion.
Nonetheless, the website The Balance goes a step further and adds the expenses of other
agencies that come under the defense umbrella, and it states that the budget is actually
$886 billion.
We can’t itemize this bill, as it would take an entire show, but most of the money
goes on the actual running of the military.
However, and this is a huge part, the website states, “The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program
cost $400 billion for 2,457 planes, mostly for development and testing.”
Those F-35s sure are expensive, especially when you consider that the Department of Education
got only $59 billion last year.
. What about China and Russia?
As for Russia’s budget, again, it depends on what source you are reading.
Fortune in 2017 called Russia’s military “leaner, but meaner”, stating that its
budget had decreased to just 42.3 billion dollars.
Other sources say it’s more like $46 billion.
That isn’t much compared to the USA, but we’ll see how that money was spent soon.
China’s defense budget – and most sources agree – for 2018 is $174.5 billion.
Ok, so the USA has the highest GDP in the world at 19.4 trillion dollars (19,390,600)
according to the International Monetary Fund.
China was next at 12 trillion, (12,014,610) and Russia was in 12th at 1.53 trillion (1,527,469).
What we can say is that it’s obvious why Russia is spending much less than the USA,
but China, if it wanted, could perhaps spend a little more.
Percentage-wise, the USA spends a fair bit more than China on military when the budget
is divided by GDP.
Still, in terms of spending power, the USA is stronger than both countries, and in terms
of military spending, it spends about 4 times more than both China and Russia combined.
But what do we get for your money?
One website dedicates its time to adding up how many people and how much machinery each
country has.
As for the USA, in terms of feet on the ground, it has a total of 2,083,100 personnel.
1,281,900 work as active personnel, and 801,200 are reserves.
Here we can guess the USA will fall behind.
Russia has a total of 3,586,128 military personnel.
1,013,628 are active personnel and 2,572,500 are reserves.
China has a total of 2,693,000 military personnel.
2,183,000 are active personnel and 510,000 are reserves.
What this means is that Russia and China together have about a three times larger military in
terms of manpower than the USA.
When it comes to people needed to fight, one thing to bear in mind is training, but when
it comes to war, one of the things you have to think about is who would fight and sacrifice
themselves?
Perhaps the most war-torn nation is Russia, having suffered in the world wars so much,
but then the U.S. has been at war or secretly involved in military operations almost since
the second world war.
China’s military is largely untested, but one should ask if China’s regime would be
better able than the U.S. government at summoning its people to fight.
We might also ask if those many in the USA who have grown used to relatively more creature
comforts would even join a war, or would they even protest against one?
As we say, there’s no easy way to understand this.
We can only speculate.
Let’s now have a look at what each country has in terms of machines that travel on land:
The USA has in total 5,884 battle tanks, 38,822 armored fighting vehicles, 950 self-propelled
artillery, 795 towed artillery and 1,197 rocker projectors.
Russia has 20,300 battle tanks, 27,400 armored fighting vehicles, 5,970 self-propelled artillery,
4,466 towed artillery and 3,816 rocket projectors.
China has 7,716 battle tanks, 9,000 armored fighting vehicles, 2,000 self-propelled artillery,
6,246 towed artillery and 2,050 rocket projectors.
As you can see, the USA has far fewer machines here.
But it does have the M1 Abrams tank, which is regarded as one of the best in the world.
Much of Russia’s fleet is old, but its T-90 is good, and its newer Armata super tank is
also regarded as a mean machine and perhaps the best in the world, but as National Interest
pointed out in 2018, the country may not have enough money to produce many of them.
That’s the big difference: the USA has tons of budget to produce many more tanks if need
be.
National Interest also points out that most of China’s tank fleet is old, but hastens
to say that China’s Type 99 can hold its weight with any of Russia’s or America’s
tanks.
You have to give China and Russia the advantage here.
But where the USA is strongest is in the air, with no other country coming near its outrageously
powerful fleet of aircraft.
We already know about all those F-35s in development, but the USA also has a large fleet of other
great aircraft including F-22 Raptors, F-15E Strike Eagles, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and
F-16 Fighting Falcons.
This year it bought 15 KC-46 Tanker strategic military transport aircrafts for $3.1 billion,
and also one B-21 Bomber for $2 billion.
We might also wonder what’s going on with stealth aircraft at that secretive place called
Area 51.
Still, Russia has hundreds of Sukhoi Su-35s, and no one has ever doubted this aircraft
is as good as any that exist.
As back up, it has fleets of MiG-29s, Su-27s and MiG-31s.
Looking to the future and 5th generation aircraft, Russia is quietly building the Sukhoi T-50
PAK-FA, which National Interest said is as good as anything out there, while the airplane
Russia calls “The Ghost”, the Su-57 stealth fighter, is currently under development.
China is no slouch either, with its ready for battle Chengdu J-10s and J-20s.
You’ll find all of these aircraft we’ve mentioned on top ten lists, with pundits not
always agreeing on which takes first place.
All we can say is that the U.S. has more cash to build more, and perhaps a more experienced
air force.
As for the navy, the U.S. holds an ace in the hole with its large fleet of 20-strong
aircraft carriers, expensive things but extremely important in war.
The biggest and perhaps best of its kind is the USA’s Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), and the
U.S. also has 2 supercarriers under construction and 10 more planned, which will cost many
billions of dollars.
China has just two aircraft carriers but is building a supercarrier called the Type 002
(or CV 18).
Russia has one fairly old aircraft carrier not quite up to speed with China and America.
The U.S also has 10 frigates, 65 destroyers (some more to come this year), 0 corvettes,
66 submarines, 13 patrol craft, and 11 mine warfare vessels.
China has 50 frigates, 29 destroyers, 39 corvettes, 73 submarines, 220 patrol craft and 29 mine
warfare vessels.
Russia has 9 frigates, 13 destroyers, 78 corvettes, 62 submarines, 41 patrol craft and 47 mine
warfare vessels.
Not surprisingly, if you look at any top ten lists, the best navies in the world usually
go something like, 3) Russia, 2) China and 1) USA.
Only Global Firepower puts China ahead of the USA, but its only adding up the number
of vessels.
Still, you can find articles on the web stating that China is catching up to the USA, so if
we add Russia to China, well, that’s a formidable force.
We could talk about nuclear weapons but we all know most of those are split between Russia
and the USA (China has some, but no one knows how many exactly).
We could also wonder if any country could prevent any missiles hitting in the event
of a nuclear war, but it’s likely it would just mean all-out destruction.
So, in terms of who would win this hypothetical match-up – and let’s say the USA didn’t
have any allies, such as its favorite big brother the UK – we’d have to say Russia
and China.
The USA may have the money, but both China and Russia are developing all kinds of new
weapons to match any weapons in the U.S.
On top of that, you just have so much more manpower.
It would in the end overwhelm the USA.
So, the U.S. takes its first loss on the Infographics Show, but only bc we had to pit it against
a double team.
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Do you disagree?
Let us know why or why not in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video called North Korea vs South Korea - Who Would
Win?
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!