• @ComradeSalad
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    181 year ago

    What is the ranking metric? All of these navies have vastly different doctrines, operational goals, future plans, and unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, China is a green water fleet power tasked with defending the first island chain and have only recently started branching out into blue water doctrines, Russia relies on small surface vessels to cover its submarine fleet, and America focuses on airpower based power projection fleets.

    China and America in the first island chain/Taiwan? China sweeps. China and America in the North Pacific or Indian Ocean? US sweeps. Convoy and ship harassment/denial in the North Atlantic, Med, and North Pacific? Russia has the best fleet for that. Blue water superiority of the Atlantic between Russia and the US? US fleet would dominate the Russian surface fleet.

    If it is simple ranking by number of vessels, then that is because green water fleets focus primarily in smaller, lighter, and cheaper ships such as gunboats, minesweepers, corvettes, frigates, patrol craft, and fast attack boats. Submarine and blue water fleets are much more expensive in comparison so logically there are going to be less ships overall. I.e 2-5 corvettes to a destroyer for example.

    Also I’m very sorry, but there is no way that North Korea is anywhere near the top 20 in a “Strongest Navy Worldwide” list. Most of the modern craft in the KPN are very small coastal defense vessels and ASW ships, and any larger ships are mostly old WW2-Early Cold War Soviet ships.

    • @rigor
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      31 year ago

      This is exactly a ranking of number of ships. When this is brought up the counter point is the US dominated when measured by tonnage/water displacement of its whole navy—ie: the US has the the biggest navy when you count the size of everything and the quantity as opposed to the mere number.