Canada’s military and infrastructure capabilities present a mixed bag of strengths and surprising vulnerabilities, according to Global Firepower rankings.The GFP rankings are based on each nation’s potential war-making capacity across land, sea and air by conventional means. Results incorporate values related to manpower, equipment, natural resources, finances, and geography, represented by over 60 different individual factors.The annual ranking places Canada 28th out of 145 nations, with a Power Index score of 0.5179. A perfect score is 0.0000, with the United States ranked first overall at 0.0744..On the air and naval fronts, Canada shows a variety of positives and negatives.The country ranks eighth globally in Special Mission Aircraft, which include platforms for airborne early warning, maritime patrol, and electronic warfare.Meanwhile, Canada’s frigate fleet strength ranks sixth in the world, with 12 multi-role vessels capable of anti-submarine, surface, and aerial threat defence — tying with Russia, though far behind China’s 47 frigates.Despite these advantages, Canada shows notable gaps and vulnerabilities in certain areas.Offshore Patrol Vessels, crucial for maritime sovereignty, rank 49th globally, with only 24 ships — fewer than Bolivia, a landlocked nation.The country also possesses zero naval destroyers, aircraft carriers, helicopter carriers, or corvettes..Canadians want military spending prioritized as Trudeau Liberals cut $79M .The Department of National Defence’s 2024 ‘Our North, Strong and Free’ strategy acknowledged some of these vulnerabilities and plans to commit $8.1 billion over five years and $73 billion over 20 years, with projected defence spending rising to 1.76% of GDP by 2029–30.The policy identifies three disruptive trends driving the new strategy: climate-driven Arctic instability, intensifying geopolitical rivalry, and rapid technological shifts.Protecting sovereignty in the Arctic — where melting ice is opening new shipping lanes and security risks — has emerged as a top priority.Manpower is another challenge for Canada. The country has 16.6 million people available for service, ranking 40th, but only 68,000 active personnel, placing it 61st worldwide.By comparison, Nepal fields 95,000 soldiers, while Kuwait — a country 37 times smaller than Alberta — maintains 72,000 troops..While sizeable, this is modest compared to countries with larger populations, such as China, India, and the United States, where sheer population numbers provide a theoretical advantage in long, drawn-out conflicts.Infrastructure is an interesting one. Transport Canada reports Canada has the fifth-largest railway network in the world at 49,000 km. Yet, according to the CIA World Fact Book, only 4,942 km meet international standards for operational military use, suggesting that 90% of the system falls short of international benchmarks and the CIA’s guidelines for tactical and strategic flexibility..Canada’s natural resources and infrastructure continue to be the nation’s main global standouts.The country ranks fourth in oil production at 5.69 million barrels per day and fourth in oil reserves at 170.3 billion barrels.Natural gas reserves place Canada fifth globally, and the country also ranks second in land area, total ports, harbours, and terminals, and fifth in airports, surpassing countries like Russia..Similarly, comparable nations according to GFP include Germany (14th), Algeria (26th), and Argentina (33rd), highlighting Canada’s mid-tier global military posture despite its G7 status.Dr. David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI), cautions against taking such rankings at face value.“Doing this kind of cross-country comparison is super difficult,” Perry told the Western Standard.“You can call anything a destroyer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the same capability. Different countries use different standards, and it’s hard to quantify capability in a chart.”Perry said training and readiness matter as much as hardware, but those “softer elements” are nearly impossible to capture in quantitative indexes..Canadian Armed Forces to receive $2 billion retroactive pay hike as Carney works to meet NATO pledge."I'm holding a smartphone in my hand, and I could probably use 5% of the functionality of it well, which doesn't mean it's bad phone ... So I am not using anything close to the entire capacity of the device, " he said."That's a crude way of explaining the training that your military has is at least as important as the actual hardware that it has, as well as what you do to maintain the military readiness of your forces."You don’t actually know how good something is until it’s tested in combat."He added that while policymakers may not rely heavily on the GFP index, it provides “a useful snapshot” of how Canada stacks up globally.“There’s a discrepancy between what we spend — closer to the top 20 globally — and where we rank, which is closer to 30,” Perry said.“In some ways, our country can be super insular, so having some sense of how we actually compare to other countries is fine... I think that analysis is an interesting way of juxtaposing us as a G7 country but more like a G30 one when it comes to quantitative military capacity terms.”The full report can be viewed here.
