In 2024, Ukraine ranked 18th in the Global Firepower ranking of strong armies with a score of 0.2598, making it the fourth most powerful army in Europe.
Last year, Ukraine was ranked 15th in the world, and in 2022 it was ranked 22nd among 145 armies in the world. Taking into account only European armies, the Armed Forces of Ukraine ranks fourth (excluding Turkey and Russia).
The first three places among European countries are occupied by Great Britain with a score of 0.1443, Italy – 0.1863 and France – 0.1878. The armies of Israel (17th place) and Germany (19th place) are among the neighboring countries of Ukraine, which were ranked lower in the global analysis.
According to Global Firepower's ranking, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are in a better position than some of Ukraine's other allies, including Spain (20), Poland (21), Norway (41), the Czech Republic (46) and Finland (50). This applies to both military capabilities and material support received from Western allies, in particular the United States.
The explanatory note to the rating states that the center's researchers considered more than 60 factors for a comprehensive assessment of the strength of the armed forces.
According to the calculation formula used to classify the positions in the rating, the team of scientists of the Global Firepower company developed it. This formula takes into account the PowerIndex, which is defined so that lower scores indicate a country's more powerful military.
The ideal PowerIndex is “0” points. In their calculations, Global Firepower analysts take into account various factors, such as the number of military units, financial status, the availability of material and technical resources and the geographical location of the country.
"Our unique proprietary methodology allows smaller, more technologically advanced states to compete with larger, less developed states. Special modifiers in the form of bonuses and fines are also used to further improve the annual rating," the creators of the rating write.
According to the analysis of Global Firepower, the strongest army in the world remains the USA. The Russian army is in second place, and the top three is China.
Compared to last year, South Korea was able to break into the top five strongest armies in the world, pushing Great Britain to sixth place. When talking about the weakest armies in 2024, Global Firepower pointed to Suriname, Moldova and Somalia.
In the context of Russia's second place, the analysts emphasized the "key limitations of the Russian military potential", in addition to the numerical superiority and material strength over Ukraine, which became evident during the Russian-Ukrainian war. Global Firepower noted that this reveals problems in the level of readiness, command, training and supply of the Russian military.
The results of the analytical report conducted by Global Firepower experts, taking into account the real situation in the theater of war between Russia and Ukraine, raise certain questions regarding the rating of the occupying armies and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
It should be noted that the Global Firepower (GF) reference estimate is based on open sources and calculations, not on actual observations on the ground where actual military power is measured. Global Firepower is a rating of the total military power of every country in the world.
To calculate the rating of the countries in the group of compilers, a certain formula is used, the details and essence of which are not disclosed. One of the peculiarities of this formula is that the number of nuclear weapons of a country is not taken into account, although its presence is taken into account. The rating has no official approval or verification by well-known experts, scientists, military, or any government of any country in the world.
According to an investigation by Bellingcat, the Global Firepower site belongs to the MilitaryFactory.com network of sites, which was founded by American blogger Daniel Puchek. Puchek is known to specialize in websites related to wedding dresses and other entertainment portals.
Although Global Firepower provides little detail about the sources and methodology used, it does not claim to be an authoritative academic assessment of the military power of countries.
