U.S. vs. Russia: America Remains World’s Mightiest Army but Vladimir Putin Boasts of Clear Nuclear Edge – Report

If a shooting war erupts between the United States and Russia anytime soon, the numbers say that America will win overwhelmingly, that is if the skirmishes are confine on conventional warfare. However, it will be a different story in case of a nuclear World War III.

America generally outmuscles Russia

Using the Global Firepower Index, Business Insider drew a chart that highlighted the military capabilities of 35 nations, which as expected is dominated by the United States and Russia.

Head to head, the U.S. clearly dominates Russia winning in six out of eight key elements cited in the BI chart.

Three notable advantages of U.S. President Barack Obama, if he chooses to shoot it out with Putin, are in the personnel, air power and sea authority departments. Around 1.4 million active U.S. service members are at Obama's disposal, facing off with Putin's combat-ready 766,000 Russian troops.

The U.S. Air Force can at any time project air superiority 13,683 modern aircrafts that can dogfight and eventually bomb Russia's mere 3000 plus military planes out of the sky.

But really what makes America mighty and formidable are its 10 aircraft carriers that the Business Insider report characterised as "super-carrier vessels (that) significantly boosts the country's forward operating power."

"Aircraft carriers contribute greatly to a country's overall military strength. These massive vessels allow nations to project their force far beyond their borders and across the entire face of the globe. They're essentially mobile naval and air force bases," the report added.

Such menacing firepower that can be further paired with 72 killer submarines, which translates to air, naval and land superiority, Russia can only match with its lone full-pledged aircraft carrier (Moscow has helicopter carriers) and 63 submarines, the index showed.

Tank battle

Yet when it comes to tank showdown, the Kremlin is always ready to rollout 15,000 units that can barrel through the wall of 8000 plus tanks that the White House can muster in the event the two would engage in an armour face off.

Russia, in fact, leads any military in the world in this respect.

Fearsome nuclear arsenal

The same index somehow confirmed the earlier reports that in a nuclear duel, Putin will theoretically get the better of Obama as the Russian leader can readily deploy 8,484 nuclear warheads, arrayed against America's 7,506, in a push of a button.

And if strategy counts (as it should be), Russia is definitely on a warpath as it continues to modernise its military arsenal that its searing-hot defence spending could soon overtake that of the U.S' $612 billion Pentagon budget.