Israel drops a slot in 2019 Military Strength Ranking, still behind Iran

Israel’s military is in 17th place in the latest 2019 Military Strength Ranking index by Global Firepower.

Israel comes behind the standard military powerhouses of the United States, Russia, China, India and European powers Germany, the UK and France, but has moved down one place from 2018 when it came in 16th.

However, out of the top 30 countries, including Egypt, Brazil and Japan, Israel is still punching above its weight and has by far the lowest population with only 8,424,904 people.

It also lists Israel’s defense budget at $19.6 billion, far exceeding many of the countries in the top 20.

Perhaps the surprise of the index is that Israel ranks behind regional enemy Iran for the second year in a row, despite international pressure and sanctions against the Islamic republic, although full US sanctions have only been re-instated since November 2018.

Global Firepower state that Israel has 170,000 active personnel in all branches of the armed forces, with a further 445,000 people in reserve, meaning a total of 7.3% of Israel’s population are somehow involved a military role. Compared to Iran, which similarly has around 873,000 people on active duty and in reserve, but only 1.1% of the population is involved in the armed forces. 

Muslim countries Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia also rank ahead of Israel in terms of military power. 

The Global Firepower ranking uses over 55 factors to determine a country’s ranking, allowing smaller, more technologically-advanced nations to compete with larger nations. A nation’s financial stability is taken into account as a determining factor, perhaps making Iran’s place in the top 15 even more surprising.

Rankings are based simply on the size of an army, number of weapons a country may have and other factors such as geography, natural resources and local industry. Nuclear weapons or stockpiles are not taken into account. However, recognized nuclear powers are awarded additional points.