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Military power of Italy & China

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Italy vs China

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Italy China

Italy is a country located in Southern Europe with an area of 301,338 km2 (land boundries: 1,836.4 km and costline 7,600 km). The capital of Italy is Rome. The number of inhabitants is 60,317,116.

Italy is a member of NATO and was one of the original 12 countries to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. The Italian Armed Forces inventory includes a mix of domestically-produced, jointly-produced, and imported weapons systems, mostly from Europe and the United State. The Italian defense industry is capable of producing equipment across all the military domains with particular strengths in naval vessels and aircraft

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China is a country located in Eastern Asia with an area of 9,596,961 km2 (land boundries: 22,457 km and costline 14,500 km). The capital of China is Beijing. The number of inhabitants is 1,444,390,177.

The People's Liberation Army is the military arm of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which oversees the PLA through its Central Military Commission. The PLA is outfitted primarily with a wide mix of older and modern domestically-produced systems heavily influenced by technology derived from other countries. Russia is the main supplier military equipment outside the domestic industry.

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If you want to check the comparison in terms of economic ratios check out CompareEconomy.com

Military expenditures

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Military budget: 32 billion $ 293 billion $
Percent of GDP: 1.5% 1.7%

Military budget

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Highest value in the world: 816 billion $ (USA)
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Manpower

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Active personnel: 165,500 2,035,000
Reserve personnel: 18,300 2,000,000
Available for military: 13,865,688 385,821,101

Active

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Highest value in the world: 2,035,000 (China)
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Land Forces

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Tanks: 200 5,750
Armoured fighting vehicles: 2,758 14,130
Total artillery: 197 7,094
Self-propelled artillery: 68 2,720
Rocket artillery: 21 3,140

Tanks

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Highest value in the world: 12,267 (Russia)
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Air Forces

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Total aircraft: 712 4,630
Fighter aircraft: 92 1,049
Multirole aircraft: 66 1,130
Attack aircraft: 45 120
Helicopters: 423 1,355
UCAV (combat drone): 12 151

Total aircraft

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Highest value in the world: 12,930 (USA)
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Navy

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Total naval: 200 742
Aircraftcarriers: 2 4
Destroyers: 4 38
Frigates: 15 54
Corvettes: 0 73
Submarines: 8 74

Total naval

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Highest value in the world: 967 (North Korea)
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Nuclear weapons

Italy

Italy participates in the NATO nuclear weapons sharing arrangements and trains for delivering United States nuclear warheads.

China

The last of five nuclear-weapon states under the NPT, which at this moment possesses approximately 280 nuclear warheads in total. Nevertheless, the number of deployed bombs is unknown. The first test that occurred to be successful occurred in 1964. The main goal of Chinese was to build a deterrent against two major nuclear powers, namely The United States as well as The Soviet Union. The nation decided to choose dried lake for the nuclear site, Lop Nur. Although China developed and tested its first atomic device only in 1964, they managed to test their first hydrogen bomb only 32 months later. As a result, they can boast with the shortest period between developing fission and fusion technology.

China managed to conduct 45 tests of nuclear weapons. Still, the data regarding the stockpile of accumulated warheads is uncertain. The same thing concerns the number of deployed warheads. It is all due to the limited information that the country provides. We should also bear in mind that they are the only country out of five nuclear-weapon states under the NPT that does not give a positive security assurance.

Military service

Italy

18-25 years of age for voluntary military service; women may serve in any military branch; Italian citizenship required; 1-year service obligation.

China

18-24 years of age for selective compulsory military service, with a 2-year service obligation; no minimum age for voluntary service (all officers are volunteers); 18-19 years of age for women high school graduates who meet requirements for specific military jobs; a recent military decision allows women in combat roles.