The National Armed Forces (NAF) of the Republic of Latvia currently ranks 102nd in the world in military power. A year ago, they were at 99th.
The assessment of the world's armies is conducted annually by the creators of the Global Firepower ranking. According to this data, the Latvian Armed Forces are slightly weaker than the Armenian army (101), but a bit stronger than the Honduran troops (103).
When evaluating the military strength of Latvia's neighbors, there is only one country that Latvia can defeat in a fair fight. This is Estonia, whose army is ranked 106th, between Zimbabwe and Uganda.
The Estonians are closing the gap – while the Latvian Armed Forces dropped three positions in a year, the Estonians rose by one.
The southern neighbors – the Lithuanians – appear to be more combat-ready, as they occupy the 88th position, just like a year ago. The Syrian army is ranked close to them.
Even stronger is Belarus – ranked 70th in the world. Perhaps, united, Lithuania and Latvia could achieve victory over Lukashenko's army, but it’s better not to test that.
Finally, the strongest army is that of Russia, which ranks 2nd in the rating. Here, American generals need to be called for help.
The ranking includes a total of 145 countries. The leader remains the USA, with the aforementioned Russia in second place, and China in third. The top 5 includes India and South Korea. The top ten features France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Italy. Ukraine rounds out the top 20.
The Global Firepower index, which has been updated annually since 2016, takes into account over 50 different indicators. The ranking evaluates only non-nuclear capabilities.
The weakest armies in the world are recognized as the armed forces of the Central African Republic, Belize, and Bhutan. However, there are about fifty other countries that did not make the ranking, and their strength is unknown.
For reference: Global Firepower (GFP) is a ranking of the combined military power of each country in the world. The ranking was created by American blogger Daniel Puchik. For calculating the ranking of each country, Puchik uses a specific formula, the essence and details of which are not disclosed. The ranking is not endorsed or verified by any experts, scholars, military personnel, or authorities of any country in the world, but it does not claim to be accurate.
The ranking has been mentioned by publications such as Business Insider, Forbes, The Times of India, CNBC, Newsweek, Deutsche Welle, Wirtschaftswoche, Handelsblatt, Kyiv Post, bb.lv, as well as by Petro Poroshenko during his presidency in Ukraine and many others.
The website where the index is published does not specify a publisher and calls itself part of the Military Factory Network.
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