Azernews.Az

By Ali Mustafayev

The U.S.-based Global Firepower survey center has put the Azerbaijani Army at the 58th place in the list of world's strongest armies.

The nation of 9.8 people outperformed the countries of the region in the global ranking of military powers for 2017.

Azerbaijan is currently ranked 58th among 133 countries considered for the annual GFP reviews, with power index rating of 0.8875 (0.0000 being perfect).

The report reads that country’s manpower available is 5 million people, of whom over 3.75 million are fit for the service. The total military personal is 374,500 people, with 67,000 active personal.

Noting that war goes beyond simple physical "strength-in-numbers", relying heavily on financing and effort as much as any one piece of hardware fielded, the report says that Azerbaijan’s military budget is over $3 billion.

The Georgian Army was ranked the 82nd, while the Armenian Army took the 93rd place.

The first three places of the rating belong to the U.S.A, Russia and China respectively. The top 10 also includes India, France, Great Britain, Japan, Turkey, Germany and Egypt. Iran is placed on the 21st place.

The Global Firepower organization functions since 2006 and provides its unique analytical display of data concerning over 130 modern military powers. The ranking is based on each country’s potential war-making capability across land, sea and air. The results incorporate values related to resources, finances and geography with over 50 different factors ultimately making up the final annual rankings.

The history of the modern Azerbaijani army dates back to the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic created in the early 20th century. The Armed Forces of the Azerbaijan Republic were created on June 26, 1918 to protect the country from the military aggression of Armenia and Russia.

Today, the Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces consist of Air Force and Air Defense Forces, the Navy, and the Land Forces. The Azerbaijani army was repeatedly named the strongest and most modern army in the South Caucasus region.

Azerbaijan pays special attention to the professional training of its military personnel. Alongside the exercises inside the country, Azerbaijani Armed Forces participate in various military exercises conducted at the international level, including those with the Turkish, Russian and Georgian armed forces.

The national army possesses modern weapons and technical equipment for maintaining a high level of combat capability. These weapons are both purchased from other countries, such as Turkey, Israel, Russia, the U.S., and also are of domestic production.

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