The Global Firepower Index (GFI) ranked Egypt's military as the 12th most powerful worldwide ahead of Isreal, Vietnam and Brazil, in a list of 126 countries with the most powerful militaries in the world for 2016. The GFI criteria ranks the countries based on more than 50 factors, including each country's military budget, its manpower, the amount of equipment each country has in its respective arsenal and its natural resources. Based on these factors, the report listed Egypt as the 12th most powerful military, having a military budget worth only US$4.4 billion, in contrast to the US military budget of US$581 billon. GFI ranked Egypt's military as the strongest in the MENA region, followed by Israel which ranks 16th in the world. The index highlights each country’s highest criteria, listing the US as the world’s most powerful military and scoring it first for the number of aircraft (13,444), aircraft carriers (19) and submarines (75).

Source: Egypt Independent March 20, 2017 11:15 UTC