POPULATION AND AREA

FINANCIAL

PERSONNEL
 

Notes:
(1) This figure is for the United States Marine Corps (USMC)
(2) This figure is for the Chinese Strategic Missile Force.
(3) Japanese Central Command and Support personnel.
(4) This figure is for Command and Support personnel – approximately 80,000 Strategic Missile Force personnel are included in the figure for the Russian Air Force.
(5) Figures do not include paramilitary personnel and US figures do not include approximately 42,000 US Coastguard personnel.
(6) The figures in the above table should be treated as a reasonable guide to overall personnel totals and not as an authority.
 

MAJOR ARMY FORMATIONS AND EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE (ESTIMATE)
 

Notes:
(1) Numbers in this column include Armoured, Mechanised, Infantry, Motorised, Airborne, Air Assault and Amphibious Brigades.
(2) Figure for the US includes USMC Brigades and equipment.
(3) Overall numbers in this table are averages over a number of sources.
 

MAJOR NAVAL VESSELS
 

Notes:
(1) Figures for submarines include both attack submarines and strategic nuclear submarines.
(2) US figures include 22 x Ticonderoga Aegis Cruisers.
(3) Russian Figure includes 5 x Cruisers.
(4) These aircraft carriers and smaller and less capable than their US counterparts.
(5) About half of the EU frigates are probably in refit or extended maintenance at any one time. Expect other nations to have similar totals of vessels that are not available for operations.
 

AIR FORCE ASSETS
 

Notes:
(1) Figure includes, US Air Force, US Navy and US Marine Corps Aviation aircraft.
(2) Figures are for US Active Force Aircraft.
(3) All other figures include Naval Aviation.
 

INFORMATION RELATING TO THE TABLES
 

Sources

A variety of sources were used to identify and where possible to verify both the order of battle and the inventory of individual nations. The most important and usually the most accurate source of information was the Ministries of Defence of the nations concerned, some of whom provided us with considerable unclassified information. This core information was then compared with a variety of other sources many of which were contradictory, and where possible we have used our experience and a certain amount of common sense, to provide what we believe is a reasonably accurate account of each nation’s defence assets.

Personnel

Personnel figures are constantly changing and the figures that we provide are to the best of our knowledge accurate as at mid 2010. However, many countries are downsizing their conventional Armed Forces for a variety of reasons amongst which the lack of a perceived external threat and the impact of the financial crisis.

Equipment numbers

These numbers are derived from a variety of sources which include some figures published by individual Ministries of Defence. They cannot be 100% accurate and should be treated as a guide. Many of the figures are our own estimates, especially when we know that some older systems had been placed in longer term storage.

Exchange Rates

The monetary units used throughout this book are Euros and US dollars using a mid 2010 exchange rate of 1.22 US Dollars to one Euro. The majority of financial figures are taken from the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports.
One billion = 1,000 million
One trillion = 1,000 billion

Current Unit Deployments

In general terms, under Current Unit Deployments we list the detail for deployments that involve at least a platoon sized organisation – approximately 30 personnel.