powerful militaries in the world

Despite its recent geopolitical misadventures and its withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States armed forces remains the most powerful in the world with the worlds largest defense budget.

Massive modernization and an impressive procurement program by Putin during the past two decades have made the Russian military one of the most powerful in the world. In two instances (Ukraine and Ossetia) in which the Russian military was called upon to prove their might, they didnt fail to impress.

The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is the official name for the armed forces of the Peoples Republic of China. It is the worlds largest military force, with the strength of approximately 2.3 million personnel, which is only 0.18 percent of the countrys population.

With over 1.3 million active personnel, it is the worlds third largest military force and the worlds second largest volunteer military. It currently ranks as the fourth most powerful military in the world overall.

France might not be the great military power it used to be, however, its still within the top ten most powerful militaries. Highlights of its involvement include the war on terror in Mali, Afghanistan, Libya, and currently against ISIS.

Despite its relatively small size compared to countries like the USA, Russia, and China, and the fact that British government plans to reduce

The Japan SelfDefense Forces, or JSDF as they are known, are the unified military forces of Japan that were established after World War II. Even though they have been inactive for the better part of the past fifty years, recent tensions in the area, particularly with North Korea, have reignited the debate over the status of the JSDF and its relation to Japanese society.

The Turkish armed forces collectively rank as the second largest standing military force in NATO, after the US Armed Forces, with an estimated strength of 495,000 personnel, according to a 2011 NATO estimate. Turkey is also one of five NATO member states which are part of the nuclear sharing policy of the alliance, together with Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.

The reform of the German military is the most radical overhaul of the Bundeswehr in its history. New challenges such as international terrorism and global cooperation require a smaller, more flexible troop structure that wont have as defensive a role as it has had in the past few decades.

The Italian Armed Forces is composed of the Italian Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Carabinieri (which serves as the narions military police). As of late 2014, the Italian military is the third largest in the European Union and the fifth among NATO nations with nearly 320,000 total active personnel.