Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show's Who Would Win series.
In one corner we have the United States of America, currently the undisputed military
heavyweight of the world.
Its naval strength is equivalent to the naval strength of all the major naval powers combined,
and its air forces reign undisputed.
In the other corner we have the unified continent of South America, which while possessing very
limited combined military might, bring special operation forces that are widely considered
some of the best jungle warfare operators in the world.
Who would win in this Western Hemisphere showdown?
Stay tuned and let's find out!
The United States is currently the world's sole surviving superpower after the peaceful
resolution of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
While China is currently eyeing the top spot with envy, the United States still maintains
a solid grip on the number one position and is not expected to relinquish the spot anytime
soon.
For a large part of its history the US has maintained rather isolationist world views,
eyeing warily the conflicts that raged across Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries,
and mostly avoiding being dragged into them- with the exception of two World Wars which
it joined reluctantly.
Not wishing to be a part of Europe's constant violence, for years the United States' isolationist
world view saw it build one of the most formidable navies on earth, determined to make sure that
any conflict that broke out would remain far from its shores, and serving as a deterrent
against any aggressive European power determined to drag America into its problems.
Its isolationist past served the US well in developing the most powerful navy in the world.
By World War I, the American navy rivaled England's Royal Navy, who had for centuries
been the premier naval power.
Despite the catastrophic attack against Pearl Harbor, World War II saw the American navy
exceed the Royal Navy, and the Cold War saw a massive expansion of naval firepower unprecedented
in human history.
American naval power now projects more air power than most nation's air forces, and its
naval air forces are fully capable of waging an air war against a near-peer adversary completely
on their own.
America's naval and air strengths will be key to a South American conflict, allowing
the United States to ensure that the war is waged far from its own shores.
Its ground combat forces, while not as numerous as those of China or Russia, are still some
of the largest, and the best equipped in the world.
Almost two decades of fighting a counterinsurgency war in Iraq and Afghanistan have prepared
America for the type of combat it'll see in South America, as South American forces choose
to fight an asymmetrical war rather than a conventional one against America's superior
firepower.
The South American alliance represents 11 nations- Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela,
Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Suriname.
Brazil, the leader of the alliance, features a very capable military which is currently
rated as the 13th most powerful in the world.
Unfortunately for Brazil, the rest of its allies all sport relatively minor militaries
with large manpower pools, but very little equipment in the form of heavy armor, air
and naval power, or artillery.
This leaves most of the heavy lifting in Brazil's hands, who will be hard pressed to blunt the
assault of American naval and air power on its own.
Mostly focused on fighting internal conflicts, South American military forces consist largely
of light infantry, which are perfectly suited for the jungle environment of most conflict
zones in the continent.
Without a need for heavy armor, the best the continent can offer is a token force of mostly
outdated tanks, yet at least half of their infantry is mechanized and extremely mobile.
South American expertise however is in its special operations forces, who have been combating
communist guerrillas and drug cartel members for decades in some of the thickest jungles
in the world.
This makes South American special forces some of the best in the world when it comes to
jungle warfare and asymmetrical warfare, which perfectly suits the type of war that the continent
will have to fight against America's superior firepower.
On the seas the continent will be able to marshal a moderate force of surface vessels
and a handful of submarines.
With only about thirty total frigates across the entire alliance, and no destroyers, the
best the South American fleet will be able to do is fight a retreating defensive action
against overwhelming US naval assets.
With about 32 submarines though, South America has a greater concentration of undersea power
than the US will be able to match, given its commitment to keep at least a third of its
own submarines forward deployed to hot spots around the world in case of sudden war breaking
out elsewhere.
At best the US will be able to deploy about 22 submarines to South American waters- yet
what they lack in numbers they more than make up for in capabilities, with most South American
submarines being decades behind in tech.
Brazil though operates four extremely capable French-made Scorpene class diesel-electric
subs which could pose a serious threat to American naval vessels.
In a conflict, the United States would be able to call upon an active duty military
force of 1,281,900, with 860,000 reservists being called up to action on declaration of
hostilities.
By comparison the South American alliance would be able to call upon 1,026,927 active
duty personnel, with 1,896,500 reservists.
The US however would only be able to commit about half of its active duty forces to the
conflict, with the rest of its military deployed around the world in peacekeeping roles- so
in reality it would only be able to bring about 641,000 personnel to the fight initially.
South American forces also sport over twice as many reservists that would be called up
to active duty in case of war- yet American reservists receive regular training and even
deployments to combat zones, making the process of activating and preparing them for combat
a matter of days in most cases.
By comparison most South American reservists receive little training and would require
at minimum weeks to mobilize and train in preparation for combat.
While the alliance also sports a greater number of active duty military troops, this includes
a large number of conscripts, whom are notorious for underperforming versus an all-volunteer
military force such as the United States'.
To make matters worse for the alliance, training in modern combined arms operations is widely
lacking outside of the Brazilian military, which is the only nation to field a military
that can truly put modern war fighting doctrine into effect.
The United States meanwhile created the concept of modern combined arms warfare and has used
it to great effect in wars around the world.
With vastly superior naval forces, the United States would be able to quickly establish
sea and air dominance, as the only real threats would come from Brazil's navy and Air Force
who operates eight capable frigates but no destroyers.
The small number of submarines available to the alliance would be best used in a defensive
fight, settling on the bottom of the shallow coastal plain and allowing US ships to come
to them so they can avoid detection by the US Navy's formidable anti-submarine warfare
capabilities.
Not daring to risk their subs in deep water operations, this would leave the alliance's
submarines with a few opportunities to possibly sink some American surface combatants- specially
American destroyers- but would be forced to immediately flee to avoid catastrophic retaliation.
The limited endurance of diesel electric submarines used by the alliance would see the underwater
fleet working to attack targets of opportunity as they presented themselves in hit and run
operations, but inevitably destroyed by the relentless pursuit of American nuclear powered
submarines which are both faster and don't have to surface in order to recharge their
batteries.
In the end, the naval conflict would be overwhelmingly one sided, and with plenty of airborne refueling
assets the prized American aircraft carriers would remain well out of range of South American
subs as they stuck to the open ocean until the destruction of the South American undersea
fleet.
An invasion of Brazil and its strategically important shipping ports would be spear headed
by American marines under heavy air cover from carrier-based aircraft.
Cruise missile strikes against key transport infrastructure would paralyze any attempt
to move forces towards the landing sites, and those that did find operable railroad
lines and highways would be fair game for American air power.
With a complete lack of intercontinental avenues of transport, the rest of the South American
alliance would be hard pressed to lend aid to Brazil, as its forces would have to move
mostly along unimproved roads through the thick Amazon jungle to reach the battle front.
Any attempt to use the very few highways and rail lines would be met with certain destruction
from American air power.
Brazil's air force is mostly concentrated around ground-attack capabilities, and flies
budget options such as the propeller driven Super Tucano and the A-1M built in conjunction
with Italy.
With only 43 nearly obsolete F-5 fighters, there would be very little Brazil could do
to stop American air power.
On the ground the American invasion forces would quickly be supplemented by M1 Abrams
tanks, of which realistically the US would be able to commit only two thousand of its
over six thousand strong armored forces.
This would be more than enough to crush Brazil's 437 tanks, which are made up of obsolete M60
Pattons and German-made L1 Leopards, which are undergunned and vastly underarmored versus
the M1 Abrams.
With only a dozen or so attack helicopters, Brazilian infantry would be forced to rely
on platoon level fire support in the form of mortars, with their 212 self-propelled
artillery forces creating very tempting targets for America's attack helicopters, of which
it could realistically commit about four hundred to the fight.
The war would fare extremely poorly for South American forces, who would be forced to try
and send relief forces across vast jungles over unimproved roads to try and shore up
the quickly collapsing Brazilan defense.
The process of moving troops into the country alone would take weeks, and most of Brazil's
allies lack the logistical support capabilities to make such a mass movement of forces possible
in the first place.
The war however would favor local forces outside of the cities, with their expertise in jungle
fighting making any forays into the heart of South America a very perilous affair for
American forces.
Unfortunately for the alliance though, the US would have very little reason to conduct
offensives deep into the heart of the continent, as the majority of South America's economically
and industrially important centers are all located along the coastline.
While South American forces would have to move through thick jungle and over bad roads
to reach the cities where the fighting is taking place, American forces would be free
to move via sea and launch amphibious landings anywhere they please almost unimpeded by South
American naval and air assets.
While the conflict would likely have many comparisons to Vietnam, the reality is that
a US-South American war would be nothing like Vietnam, with the US enjoying complete dominance
of air and sea, and having no need to move forces out of major city centers and into
the countryside to reach strategically important objectives.
Given the already failing or very precarious economies of some South American nations,
a war would be over quickly, with the US sitting on all the continent's major coastal cities
and switching gears to a low-intensity counterinsurgency campaign, which it already has great expertise
in.
Such a campaign however would be unpredictable in scope, and depend largely on what the US's
strategic aims actually were, and how resistant the local population was to those aims.
If the US was seeking to secure territory instead of just score a military defeat and
then go home, some South American populations might in fact welcome an American annexation,
having suffered for decades under the thumb of dictators and incompetent governments that
have kept them in poverty.
If the US treated conquered territories as new American states, bringing them into the
fold of the greater American economy, the will to fight against the invaders may be
lacking altogether in large parts of a continent that is well and truly tired of being economically
exploited and mismanaged.
In the real world though the US maintains close ties with most South American nations,
and regularly invites Brazil to join it in naval exercises, seeing specifically Brazil
as a strong ally in any potential global conflict.
North and South America have far more in common than not, and such a conflict is completely
hypothetical as well as unrealistic.