Global Firepower ranked India in the fourth position in its military firepower index — behind the US, Russia and China. (Express Photo By Sandip Daundkar) Global Firepower ranked India in the fourth position in its military firepower index — behind the US, Russia and China. (Express Photo By Sandip Daundkar)

India’s military is placed fourth on a global index that has ranked 133 countries on the basis of their global military prowess, trailing behind only the US, Russia and China in that order. India’s western neighbour Pakistan ranks 13 on the Global Firepower (GFP) list 2017.

India has managed to maintain its position among the top five military powers in the world on the GFP list while Pakistan could break in the top 15 only last year. Major military powers, France, the UK, Japan, Turkey and Germany, complete the top 10.

Meanwhile, China also crept up behind Russia and is poised to take the second place soon. It has more aircraft and naval ships than Russia but is hugely outnumbered in total tanks in service.

The rankings for the index are reached after judging the countries on 50 parameters, including military resources, natural resources, industry and geographical features and available manpower. India and China being placed higher on the index are helped to a great degree with the sizeable number of armed forces personnel with the respective countries.

According to GFP’s assessment, India leads China in terms of total armed personnel with India’s 4,207,250 personnel against China’s 3,712,500. China, however, leads in terms of active personnel with 2,260,000 troops compared to India’s 1,362,500. India’s reserve components were assessed to be 2,844,750 while China trailed with 1,452,500.

The index didn’t count nuclear stockpiles for the ranking but gave points for nuclear capability, whether recognised or suspected. Another aspect for consideration was the defence budget allocation with China allocating over three times the amount India set aside for its military.

When compared with Pakistan, India led the way on all aspects except the number of attack helicopters, self-propelled artillery and waterway coverage.

On their assessment methodology, Global Firepower said in a statement: “Our formula allows smaller, though more technologically-advanced, nations to compete with larger, lesser-developed ones. Modifiers (in the form of bonuses and penalties) are added to further refine the list.”

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