US is the world’s top military power in 2026

Main points

• United States ranks first among 145 military powers
• Russia and China remain second and third
• France, Japan and Germany move up the ranking

The United States remains the world’s highest-ranked military power in 2026, ahead of Russia and China, according to the latest Global Firepower Military Strength Ranking.

Global Firepower assessed 145 countries using more than 60 factors, including military personnel, equipment, finances, logistics, natural resources and geography. The ranking focuses mainly on a country’s potential conventional military strength, rather than simply counting soldiers, aircraft or weapons.

The United States takes first place with a PowerIndex score of 0.0741, followed closely by Russia at 0.0791 and China at 0.0919. India ranks fourth with 0.1346, while South Korea completes the top five at 0.1642.

Under Global Firepower’s system, a lower score means greater conventional military strength, with 0.0000 representing a theoretical perfect score that the organisation says is realistically unattainable.

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One of the biggest changes near the top is France, which rises to sixth globally with a score of 0.1798. That puts it ahead of Japan in seventh and the United Kingdom in eighth. Global Firepower specifically notes that France moved ahead of the UK in its 2026 assessment.

France is also the highest-ranked European country in Global Firepower’s European table, followed by the UK, Italy and Germany.

Japan rises to seventh globally with a score of 0.1876, narrowly ahead of the UK at 0.1881. Türkiye ranks ninth and Italy tenth.

Brazil is the highest-ranked country in Latin America at 11th, followed globally by Germany in 12th, Indonesia in 13th, Pakistan in 14th and Israel in 15th.