SEAL Team 6, officially known as United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), and Delta Force, officially known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), are the most highly trained elite forces in the U.S. military.
1. The US Navy SEALs is arguably the top special operations force. Created in 1962, the Sea-Air-Land operators go through years of training and, especially after 9/11, endure an incredible operation tempo. Many foreign militaries base their special ops on the SEALs.
United States Navy SEALs are perhaps the finest special operations forces in the world. The competitive standard to even be considered for BUD/S training is to swim 500 yards in 10:30, 79 push-ups, 79 sit-ups, 11 pull-ups, and a 10:20 1.5 mile run.
The US dominates the air with far more bases, fighter jets and bombers than Russia but Russia is superior on the ground with more tanks, artillery and land vehicles. At sea, the countries are more evenly matched, but here the US has the edge with more destroyers, submarines and aircraft carriers.
The total U.S. military personnel count is over 1.8 million. U.S. airpower is unmatched (13,247 total aircraft to Russia's 4,173). America controls the global seas with 11 aircraft carriers, 92 destroyers, and 68 submarines. The other thing to note is just how big the technology gap is between the two global powers.
The United States
With a budget of $738 billion and 1,388,000 men and women in the armed forces, it boasts an awe-inspiring 6,125 nuclear weapons, 11 aircraft carriers, 68 nuclear submarines, 3,761 military aircraft, 867 attack helicopters, 6,209 tanks and 113 warships.
According to Statista, the most powerful military in the world is the United States military. Statista uses an index with 50 different factors such as military might to budget to give each country a score. The top eight most powerful militaries as of January 2022: United States.
Army Green Berets — "Special Forces"
Notably, Green Berets have some of the toughest initial training in the entire military (at the risk of drawing the ire of SEALs and Marine Recon). Their initial test lasts an incredible 24 days, and that's just to see if you can attend the Green Beret qualification course.
To recap: The hardest military branch to get into in terms of education requirements is the Air Force. The military branch with the toughest basic training is the Marine Corps. The hardest military branch for non-males because of exclusivity and male dominance is the Marine Corps.
As of 2022, the Federation of American Scientists estimates that Russia possesses 5,977 nuclear weapons, while the United States has 5,428; Russia and the U.S. each have about 1,600 active deployed strategic nuclear warheads. Russia's stockpile is growing in size, while the United States' is shrinking.
The United States enjoys overwhelming advantages over China. The United States outweighs China in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), technology, and military spending. China's GDP is 15 percent of global GDP, compared to 24 percent of the United States.
China wields by far the world's largest military, with 2.8 million soldiers, sailors and airmen—twice the American number. (The United States is number two; the only other countries with more than a million active duty troops are China's neighbors—Russia, India and North Korea.)
Manpower. Global Firepower ranks Russia as having the second-most-powerful military force in the world, trailing only the US, and this is with a population base that is half as large – 142 million, compared to approximately 335 million for the United States.
The United States had almost all the attributes of a great power—it stood ahead or nearly ahead of almost all other countries in terms of population, geographic size and location on two oceans, economic resources, and military potential.
Russia's air fleet
The Russian Air Force is a distant, but comfortable second to the USAF when it comes to military aircraft, with a total of 3,863 military aircraft (with another 310 allotted to the Navy).
The US special-operations community boasts some of the toughest special-operations courses. From time to time, US commandos head overseas to test their mettle at foreign special-operations schools. These are two of those foreign special-operations courses known for their difficulty and realism.
“Canadian snipers are the best in the world. The sniper training program has been around for a long time. It's the foundation, and it's been retooled from lessons learned in Afghanistan.
Armed Forces
The United States in comparison, has significantly less - 1.4 million - but when assessing the overall power of the world's military forces, the U.S. comes out on top, ahead of Russia and China in second and third, respectively.