- By Nidhi Giri
- Tue, 27 Jan 2026 05:17 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Amid geopolitical uncertainty and conflict across the world, Global Firepower has released its Military Strength for the year 2026. It is an annual ranking of the military strength of 145 countries worldwide. The rankings include over 60 factors that contribute to each country's Power Index (PwrIndx) score.
According to Global Firepower, "A perfect PwrIndx score is 0.0000, which is not achievable within the current GFP formula; therefore, the lower the PwrIndx value, the more powerful a country's conventional warfare capabilities."
India Retains Its Spot
The United States ranked first as the world’s most powerful military. It secured a PwrIndx score of 0.0741. The US has retained this spot since 2005.
Russia and China are in second and third place in this ranking. Russia scored 0.0791 and China scored 0.0919. India and South Korea also rounded out the top five. The top five rankings remained unchanged from last year.
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France rose to sixth place in the rankings this year, continuing its upward climb after ranking seventh in 2025 and 11th in 2024. Japan also moved up one place to seventh in 2026.
Italy maintains its 10th position in this ranking with a PwrIndx score of 0.2211, thus breaking into the top ten.
Pakistan's Military Ranking Continues To Decline
Pakistan's performance in the firepower rankings has been steadily declining, falling from ninth place in 2024 to 12th in 2025 and 14th in 2026. Germany has made the most striking progress in this ranking, climbing from 19th place in 2024 to 12th in 2026.
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About Operation Sindoor
The Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, 2025, which targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) as a retaliatory response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
The operation led to the neutralisation of over 100 terrorists and enemy soldiers, along with the destruction of key strategic assets, bringing the enemy to its knees within just 88 hours.