Military power

[Temper of khaine]

Now in the end all true military minds will admit that the United States Military is second to none, no one is even remotely close to its power, if it TRUELY wanted it could invade and control ANY country on earth.

But for those who have at least some knowledge I ask you these questions about your personal opinions ont he subject.

A) If you were judging a military on a per soldier basis (ie an average British Platoon or regiment against an average Israeli one, etc), who are the best soldier in the world. Try to take into account all the variables, including power projection, equipment, how the military can support itself (ie close air support, or special forces assisting navy, etc), and the classic things like bravery.

B) if you could, make a list of the top 5 or 10 military powers in order (ie on neutrel ground easy enough for both sides to access), in this try to forget about power projection abilities (how your able to support you army far from base).

C) What are TRUE power projection powers.

D) Whats the best tank in the world

E) Best main battle rifle

F) Best hair colour

Answer however many of the questions you want, and a preferable answer would have reasons why

[Temper of khaine]

For me:

A) Its Britain, because it mixes tradition, equipment, hasent been defeated in a major conflict in 300 years and has a brillent record

B)
1-U.S.-Enough Said
2-U.K.-Only ones who spend about as much /soldier as U.S, See A)
3-France-Very simular to U.K, lacks modern experience in real warfare, stumbling
4-Germany-Has good equipment, second largest standing army in Europe
5-Israel- Very good moral, good equipment, can have a standing army of 400,000
6-South Korea-Very large reserves of troops, good equipment at hand, always on guard
7-Russia-Equipment lags behind most Western militaries, improving in all areas, large nuclear/tank arsenal
8-India-Largest all-volunteer (democratic) force in the world, is slowely improving equipment
9-Japan-High tech, fairly well trained military, if it were to increase power projection would be much higher
10-China-Old but the largest all-volunteer force in the world, improving, still VERY far behind

C) The only ones I can see are; US, UK, Germany, and France as they are the only ones able to operate indepentantly around the world

D) THe Challanger II is quite possibly the best tank ever made. It allows its crews to fire very accuratly on the move, and its new-age armour is even being looked at by the americans, it also has never lost a tank on tank battle.

E) M-16 based models, they are (more recently) fairly hardy and accurate, also arent overly expensive

F) Brown (because I have brownish-blond hair)

[Church]

I think these choices are incomplete without china.

[Asikari]

Now in the end all true military minds will admit that the United States Military is second to none, no one is even remotely close to its power, if it TRUELY wanted it could invade and control ANY country on earth.

Invade, yes. Control, no. The United States (nor any other country, for that matter) could not forcibly control any other foreign power. The Soviet Union tried it for years and was unsuccessful. While the United States is not currently attempting to control Afganestan or Iraq in the same sense the Soviet Union dominated the Warsaw Pact, insurgencies would still persist in both countries, maybe to a greater degree, than currently exist. The only way for one nation to control another is if the conquered allow it. Information can be accessed and passed on too easily in the modern world for a "conquered" nation to be subjugated with propoganda.

While I consider myself a technonerd regarding military technology, I am not such I can really answer A) and B).

C) True power projection requires the ability to put explosives on target on short notice. With its fleet of supercarriers, nuclear submarines, and intercontinental bombers, the United States tops that list. To my knowledge, no other nation possesses this arsenal trifecta. The British have several carriers capable of launching Harriers and a fleet of attack submarines. The Russians have intercontinental bombers and nuclear submarines. My knowledge drops off from there.

D) M1-A2 Abrams - move and shoot capability with a 120 mm cannon, its turbine engine can run on nearly anything in a pinch, and nearly indestructible to friendly fire from other M1 tanks.
In Tom Clancy's Armored CAV he relates a story from the 1st Gulf War - essentially, an M1A1 crew got their tank stuck in a mudhole. While they were waiting for a recovery vehicle, three T-72 tanks began firing at it. While stuck, the M1 destroyed all three tanks while sustaining no damage from the 125mm HEAT rounds fired at it. Two recovery vehicles, which finally arrived, could not pull the M1 out of the mud hole. The crew was ordered to abandon their tank and several more M1s who had escorted the recovery vehicles began firing at the stuck M1, hoping to destroy it so the enemy wouldn't benefit from its salvage. The third round "fired at a favorable angle" managed to blow up the ammunition. The resultant explosion was vented through a blow-out panel and on-board fire-supression systems extinquished the flames. With the assistance of several more recovery vehicles arriving on site, the mud-logged M1 finally was towed out. The M1 was fully operational except for the sights being out of alignment. The damaged turret was removed and replaced with a new one and the tank sent back to action.

E) Got to say AK-47s. When pieces from a dozen different assault rifles manufactured in different countries under different contracts can be put together into a fully functional weapon, and it fires reliably in almost any circumstance, you've got a good piece of hardware.

F) No comment.

[Loki]

Now in the end all true military minds will admit that the United States Military is second to none, no one is even remotely close to its power, if it TRUELY wanted it could invade and control ANY country on earth.

But for those who have at least some knowledge I ask you these questions about your personal opinions ont he subject.

A) If you were judging a military on a per soldier basis (ie an average British Platoon or regiment against an average Israeli one, etc), who are the best soldier in the world. Try to take into account all the variables, including power projection, equipment, how the military can support itself (ie close air support, or special forces assisting navy, etc), and the classic things like bravery.

B) if you could, make a list of the top 5 or 10 military powers in order (ie on neutrel ground easy enough for both sides to access), in this try to forget about power projection abilities (how your able to support you army far from base).

C) What are TRUE power projection powers.

D) Whats the best tank in the world

E) Best main battle rifle

F) Best hair colour

Answer however many of the questions you want, and a preferable answer would have reasons why

I'm going to have to just go with D and E because those are the only ones I really feel like answering.

D) Yes the M1-A2 Abrams is the best tank out there, provided that you can have all its support equipment available.

E)In my opinion the best Combat Rifle is the H&K 416. It is basically the M16 design, but has its gas tube system replaced by H&K's patented short stroke piston (found on the G36, yet another good rifle). It is the best part of two different weapons and gets my vote. However, its not actually in production, so I'm going to have to offer my rundown on the different weapons.
1) FN FAL: An all around good gun. Has had many other firearms based off of it (British L1-SLR, American SCAR system). I have a personal preference for weapons in 7.62 (.308 Winchester) as opposed to 5.56 (.223 Remington), I just think that the extra power provides for better ammo. A gun I have actually considered purchasing for myself.
2) AK-47: An all around robust rifle that has been reproduced under various names by many Soviet Bloc coutnries. While its accuracy is not near as good as many other rifles, it makes it up for this by being able to fire under much worse conditions than most other rifles.
3)CETME/G3: The classic assault rifle. Developed in Spain and then transfered to Germany. It is a good all around weapon, accurate, a decent caliber, and fairly cheap to make.

[Bonemagus]

I agree I voted Russia but I think China is at least a match for Russia if not more powerful.

[Camaris]

I think you guys are giving the U.S too much credit. Don't misunderstand me, they probably have one of the most well disciplined armies since we spend more on training our soldiers then anyone else, and our military engineering is second to none.(F-22, Stealth Technology, Aircraft Carriers, M1 Abrams, etc...)

There, however are other countries that are worth noting. The one that comes to mind most quickly is China. The Chinese military may not be the most well disciplined army, and they don't always have the best technology(Migs suck), but their is like a bazillion of them. I guess it comes down to the age old argument of technology/discipline vs. mass. Being a good druchii general, I generally tend to vote for the more disciplined force, but if you have a general that knows how to use swarms, the other side could win.

[Temper of khaine]

Although I added an other thing to the poll (why it doesnt show Up i dont know). For me (not for the others) im adressing peoples concerns with me.

(FYI I agree about the Battle Rifles, although almsot anything Heckler & Koch makes are of good quality), I choose m-16 based models c-7's, M249's, amoung others, becuase they have a solid track record and are for their ability fairly cheap to manufactor (especially due to the sheer numbers in which they are produced). And about ak-47 and ak-74's are now I think too old. THats just my opinion. It was close though.

And the reason I have not mentioned china other then the lsit is the fact that they have almost zero experience, very old equipment (although they have newer stuff most of the army is quite old), poor training, poor pay and moral, and all together a poor fighting force no matter how big (the chinese army until recently was unable to even equip all of its reserves if they were called up). For those who value china's abilties continue to bring these issues up. And truth be told the Chinese Military is shrinking and even now is only about 140% the size of the US military...not much bigger.

And for those who go into great deal thank you, if I had known that you were going to do so I would have done more so myself.

[Linda lobsta defenda]

Locked because of danger of flamewar as threads about different countries vs one another always ends up that way.