How big a military does the US need? Since the Pit thread on the Canadian military I’ve been trying to gauge what is an appropriate size of military for a country. The Americans have an incredible sized force. Here’s the CDI link (PDF). I’ve compressed all 4 main branches together.
Note that this is based on 2001 numbers.
Figther Aircraft (Active) 1618
Figther Aircraft (Reserve) 633
Bombers 208
Cargo 610
US Air National Guard 1351
**Total 4420**
Divisions (Active) 13
Divisions (Reserve) 9
Bridgades not assigned (Active) 3
Brigades not assigned (Reserve) 18
**Total Divisions (1 Div = 3 Brig) 29**
Nuclear Missle Subs 18
Attack Subs 54
Aircraft Carriers 12
Cruisers 27
Destroyers 55
Frigates 28/8
Amphibious 38/2
Sea Lift 139
**Total Subs 72**
**Total Ships 304/10**
This is simply staggering. Even if you take 30% of potential forces out of the equation for repairs etc the numbers the American’s can field is incredible. And it doesn’t even take into consideration the number of bases around the world the US operates. I understand some long term obligations make this necessary. Ones I can think of off the top of my head are the DMZ (~35000 troops) and Kosovo plus the No Fly Zones in northern and southern Iraq.
The Iraq situation aside the question is “Does the US require such a large force?” I suppose a secondary question could be “Given the overwhelming projection of force the American’s possess, does that blind administrations to other tools?”