Daniel Kearns, Paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division.
147.6k Views • Upvoted by Jon Davis, Writer and Blogger on Military, Veterans, and Middle Eastern Affairs. and Michael Chan, Republic of Singapore Navy (1988-1997)
Most Viewed Writer in U.S. Army with 30+ answers
1,000 times.  Maybe more.

No other military or combination of militaries could even begin to inflict the slightest numbers of casualties on the United States Military in a conventional war.

Consider:

The US spends close to what the entire rest of the world spends in defense.  711 Billion. Per year. The next closest is China at 143 Billion. 

The M1 Abrams tank has seen more combat than just about any other tank on the battlefield today. It has never been knocked out by enemy fire. (Completely killed) Ever.  China has less than five hundred Type 99 tanks, that have just been developed, and are not even close to being as good as the Abrams.  We have 8,700 Abrams. 

We have 10 super aircraft carriers. And another 10 smaller carriers. Everyone else has 10. Combined. And they are mostly small ships that can launch helicopters. No one else has a super carrier.

There are 8400 attack helicopters in the world.  The US has 6400 of them.

The United States has engaged in every type of ground warfare in the last 20 years.  From mountains to jungles, and from desert to urban, we have the some of the most experienced warriors in the world. No other country comes close to the amount of combat veterans that we have.

We own all the satellites that guide GPS systems. We have all the advanced stealth technology. The latest sensors? US. The latest information systems? US.  An Abrams tank can see a target, the Tank Commander can instantly send that target to every tank in his Company.  Now you have 14 tanks looking for you. Oh, and it also uploads to every Apache helicopter in the area. Every indirect and direct fire system in the area knows what you are and where you are. Your survivability just dropped to 0. Instantly.

Fighting a conventional war against the US would be like a 3 year old child playing chess against Gary Kasparov.  They wouldn't even know what they were supposed to be looking at.

*Edit.  The purpose of the answer is not borne out of some nationalistic sense of pride, although I am a US Veteran and consider myself patriotic, but rather to call attention to how much larger the US Military Industrial Complex is than the entire rest of the world.  I truly believe that the rest of the world really has no clue just how powerful the US Military is.  We must begin to question the disparity of lethality between the US and the rest of the world. But we must also question, if not the US, who? Who do we want to have the largest military? China? North Korea? or an ally like the UK? Do we need to have 1,000 times the lethality of the closest military in strength? Or would 100 times suffice? I don't have the answer to those questions, nor am I purporting to. But I think it's important to begin a dialogue.
Updated Aug 17, 2013 • View Upvotes
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Murray Godfrey
Murray Godfrey, Army National Guard 2002-2008
17.2k Views • Upvoted by Paul Mulwitz, Eight years in regular United States Air Force. and Edwin Khoo, AFV Operator, Singapore Armed Forces
Murray has 180+ answers in The United States of America
In terms of soldier quality - the only advantage the U.S. has is size.  The deployments I did involved a lot of work with various NATO partners and other affiliates.  Quite frankly a lot of our partners did more with less.  I remember the Polish soldiers being very well trained.  As well as French, Czech, etc... The thing was they depended a lot on the U.S. for resources.  

Pound for pound the average U.S. soldier, airman, marine, or sailor has about the same potential as their counterparts from other countries.  In a ground battle with only the Army's resources (no other air support), I could see some kind of world coalition making the U.S. army struggle.  Maybe not beating it, but it would have to work for the victory and would take some significant casualties.  

Now, in the air and at sea the U.S. couldn't be beaten even if the entire rest of the world formed an alliance against it.  The air force and the navy are where the U.S.'s real military strength lies, particularly the air force.  It will take decades for any other country, probably China, to pose a legitimate challenge - meaning it might actually beat the U.S. in a conventional war.  In fact, I can't see the possibility of that happening until at least the latter quarter of this century when most of us are dead.  It would have to be precipitated by a U.S. economic collapse where it could no longer support its military.
Written Mar 26, 2013 •