Turkey has world’s 10th most powerful army
ANKARA
The figures on the Global Firepower website showed that Turkey has a relatively large military population, some 411,000, and a strong tank force of 3,778 vehicles.
The country is upgrading its navy, which weighs 148,448 tons as of now, while also bidding to develop its domestic tank, Altay.
The country has an aircraft fleet of 1,020 items.
The study noted that Turkey has jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) at its door step.
The website marked Turkish military spending at $18 billion, way below the remaining nine countries on the list, including the top firepower U.S., with $577 billion. Japan, the ninth military power, spends $42 billion in defense.
The U.S. spending is around tenfold of the second largest arm holder, Russia, as it is four times more than the third country, China, which has a $145 billion defense budget.
The U.S. has nearly 14,000 aircraft and its spending is larger than the remaining nine budgets on the list combined.
However, China surpasses the U.S. in terms of military population, with more than 2.3 million soldiers, compared to the U.S.’s1.4 million. Russia has the most tanks (15,398 vehicles), which is, again, more than the 8,848 tanks owned by the U.S.