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Power projection has become like an everyday affair now. Nations around the world are continuously ramping up their capabilities and to say in simple words they are doing this to protect themselves from each other. I know some of you may say this sounds stupid but agree or not that's how the world works.

1. USA

USA the most powerful country both numerically and technologically and it certainly spends more of its military budget than any other country. The U.S military is equipped with the most advanced tanks, aircrafts, submarines, and ships along with the advanced technology.

The U.S military has a lot of experience in fighting wars in different parts of the world, so they have a good battle tested force but having the strongest military is not the only thing that makes them the most powerful nation. It is the alliances that makes the US more secure and stronger. After the end of World War II, U.S and Soviet Union were the only major superpowers, and that time Europe was in a weak position, and they were worried that the soviets might invade them and spread communism in Europe. So, to resist this possible invasion, the U.S formed a collective alliance with 11 other countries, and this was the north Atlantic treaty organization or NATO. This agreement was very simple an armed attack on one member would be regarded as an attack on all of them.

Similarly, an agreement was signed with six countries in Asia. When North Korea and China turned communist, these alliances gave the U.S significant importance in world politics. Also, it has given them a significant amount of global military bases and first line of defence. This keeps the U.S homeland safer and all these things make the United States more powerful than anyone.

2. Russia

After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union was the only nation on earth that could go head-to-head with the US. In fact, in some categories they outmatched the US military. In the 80s, Soviet Union had more manpower tanks, tower artillery and submarines than the US but all of this came to a sudden end with the collapse of Soviet Union.

Although after the formation of Russian federation in 1991, they acquired most of the soviet-made weapons, but they struggled to maintain them thousands of nuclear weapons tanks aircrafts and submarines began to suffer the effects of budget cuts and now most of them are beyond repair. 

In 1988, defense spending of the soviet union was around $250 billion but by 1992 this spending came down to only 40 billion dollars and continued to fall for the rest of the 90s. Then by the start of 2000s, things started to change slowly. The russian economy was growing steadily and so was the defense budget. 

In 2008, a massive military reform program was launched. The goal was to reach 70 modernization by the year 2020 and yes they have really achieved most of their goals in the past two decades. russia has modernized their military they created new weapon platforms such as the 5th gen fighter aircrafts air defense systems and advanced cyber warfare capabilities. Also, they have proven some of their weapons in Syria so even if russia is not strong as it was in the 80s, they have covered a great distance.

3. China

China's rise as a military power has become possible because of its rapid economic development

The economic growth gave china resources for research and development of weapons. China's military spending has grown steadily since 2000 but in the last decade it took a five-fold shoot and reached nearly $200 billion dollars.

Back in the late 70s, most of the chinese weapons were outdated but the story is completely different now. China's air and naval capabilities are catching up with the west. The country has successfully made 5th generation fghter aircrafts, aircraft carriers, nuclear power, submarines, and much more.

Even though many experts question their actual capabilities, the technological gap of weapons between the west and china is rapidly getting smaller and today china is the most powerful nation in asia.

Thanks for reading....