I am involved in a debate with work mates and wish to prove them wrong. I believe this to be Sweden but they seem to be in a state of denial. Searching google and jeeves has proven useless. Please help as a great fortune maybe at state.
Well, you’re going to have to define your terms then. Japan technically has no Navy; however, their Maritime Self Defense Force arguably counts as one. There is also the Maritime Safety Agency which is their equivalent of the US Coast Guard. I believe Japan and the US are not the only two maritime countries which have both a naval force and a coast guard force.
Another question is if you wish to compile all of the military (or JSDF) afloat forces into one counting for each country. The US, for example, has military vessels for more than just the Navy.
Minstral,
There is no simple answer to your question. Do you men by hull number, tonnage, capability? Do you consider ships in lay-up or reserve? Coast guard or active combatants?
As a U. S. Naval Officer, I’ll say that the largest Navy by hull number and tonnage is still Russia. Having said that, they are in such bad shape, they can’t get out of their own way. By capability, clearly the United States.
Let me get this straight: You are saying you believe Sweden has the world’s greatest navy? That is what you believe?
If you are interested in really authoritative answers, buy a copy of “Jane’s Fighting Ships 2002-2003”, which has all this info and much more.
Or you might want to see if you can find it in a library, since it sells for $600-$800.
I was thinking that perhaps Sweden has a large merchant marine which by some technicality becomes part of its navy in wartime, but even if that’s the case Sweden fails to match its Scandinavian neighbors in either numbers or tonnage.
If you’re looking for combat ships, I like Hazegray’s World Navies Today.
Hey, he never expressly says he’s talking about the present. Maybe he’s talking about 1003, not 3003. (In which case, he might have an argument. Lotsa Viking longships around.)
Otherwise, he’s talking nonsense. I doubt Sweden even cracks the top 10.
Well, I’m not going to contradict a U.S. naval officer, but I’ll admit I’m surprised. I would have thought that the U.S. had the largest navy in the world by any standard - hulls, tonnage, active duty naval personnel, active duty plus reserves, or annual naval budget. Just goes to show I didn’t know as much as I thought.
I’m certainly confident that the U.S. has a larger navy than Sweden, by any standard.
thanks for all replys you have been a great help. In answer to your questions. I mean in shear amount of ships and you must remember Sweden still opperate a system of National service so their armed forces will not be short of numbers. Once again thanks for the help Minstral.
Urf. 2003, not 3003.
Very unlikely, by any measure. If you are talking about tonnage, I’d guess:
- Russia
- US
- Japan
- UK
- France
…
If you are talking about tonnage that is in operable condition, flip #1 and #2 around.
As far as Sweden goes, it might be in the top 10 overall, and it might be the largest naval force of a neutral country (how many ships does Switzerland have 
).
If you look at the spending of various countries, you’ll find that the US spends more than the next 20 countries combined. Here’s a reference I found (warning - 94 page PDF) Center for Defense Information look at page 39 (page 47 in the PDF). Money isn’t a great indicator (for instance, a Russian sailor my be happy with $2000 per year, a US sailor won’t be), but it is something. Sweden’s annual military budget is about 1.5% of the US annual military budget, and costs in both countries are similar (reference: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/).
Another vote here for Hazegray’s site. Those fleet lists indicate combatants of >100T displacement, and auxiliaries/transports of >500T so as to not count harbor rescue boats or ferry barges and the like.
I would not be surprised if Russia still had the most numerous, heaviest “paper” navy, specially if counting the Security Agency vessels, though most of it were in the active list only because it’s more bother to decommission and scrap than to just leave derelict in-place.
As to plain raw number of hulls in active duty, it seems that China would be near or at the top of the list on account of a huge number of coast-patrol vessels.
When it comes to active, deployable “blue water” oceangoing navies, the USA is probably far in the lead, even if we did not count the USCG. It definitely has the biggest budget by far.
And I believe (hope!) the “Sweden” comment was meant ironically. Just in case, they have 9 subs, 1 active and 4 being-built corvettes (seen pics of one: sweet!), 4 large missile boats, 15 patrol vessels of various types, 24 minesweepers/layers and assorted auxiliaries.