Vietnam moves up in 2020 global military strength

Vietnam has jumped one spot to 22nd out of 138 countries and territories in the 2020 Military Strength Ranking released by the US-based Global Firepower.

Vietnam ranks 22nd worldwide for military strength

With the index of 0.3559 (0.0000 considered “perfect”), Vietnam remains the second strongest military power in Southeast Asia, behind Indonesia.

The ranking utilizes over 50 individual factors to determine a given nation’s PowerIndex score with eight categories ranging from manpower, airpower, land forces, naval forces, natural resources, geographical features, finances, to logistics.

Regarding land forces, the country has 2,615 tanks (ranking 10th), 2,530 armored vehicles, 70 self-propelled artillery, 1,000 towed artillery, and 85 rocket projectors.

Vietnam ranks 35th globally in strength of the navy with 65 ships, including six submarines. Its airpower strength also has the same ranking.

The total military personnel is 5.48 million, accounting for 5.6% of the total population. Of the overall figure, the reserve personnel hit 5 million, ranking 1st among 138 country. The fit-for-service is 41.8 million (13rd) while reaching military age annually is 1.65 million (15th).

Vietnam, the country of 97 million people, after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 has applied compulsory conscription for men of 18 to 27 for the enlistment of two years while the status for women is voluntary.

Vietnam also ranks high in other categories including natural resources, including oil production; logistics, including labor force, ports and terminals, roadway and railway coverage, and serviceable airports; and geography, including usable waterways, shared borders, and coastline coverage.

The report also reveals that Vietnam’s defense budget is around US$5.5 billion, rising from US$3.3 billion in the previous version.

In this year's ranking, the US retains its top position with 0.0606 points, followed by Russia, China, India, and Japan.