Cameroon's elite force, BIR
Despite its prowess against Boko Haram, Global Firepower (GFP), a global think thank organization that annually ranks the world’s military, has scored the Cameroon army very low in its 2016 rankings. Though Cameroon is placed ahead of some African and European nations, Cameroon is placed 106 out of 126 countries GFP ranked.
European countries with inferior military power to that of Cameroon are rather little known Easten European nations like Estonia, Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, while those of Africa are Mozambique, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Madagascar, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Namibia, Somalia and Central Africa Republic. Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Nicaragua, Laos and Panama also come after Cameroon on the ranking.
Out of 29 African countries considered on the ranking, Cameroon came a distant 19th in Africa and 106th out of 126 across the world.
Globally, USA, Russia, China, India and France, in ascending order, lead the world in military strength while in Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa top the list.
The Global Firepower (GFP) ranking provides unique analytical display of data concerning modern military powers. Over 125 powers are considered in the ranking which allows for a broad spectrum of comparisons to be achieved concerning relative military strengths.
GFP’s ranking is based largely on each nation’s potential conventional war-making capability across land, sea and air. The final ranking incorporates values related to resources, finances and geography.
GFP officials maintain that the finalized ranking relies on over 50 factors to determine a given nation’s Power Index (“PwrIndx”) score. This allows smaller, though more technologically-advanced nations to compete with larger, lesser-developed ones.
We learned the “ranking does not simply rely on the total number of weapons available to any one country but rather focuses on weapon diversity within the number totals to provide a better balance of firepower available.”
Also, “Nuclear stockpiles are not taken into account but recognized/suspected nuclear powers receive a bonus.
“Geographical factors, logistical flexibility, natural resources and local industry influence the final ranking.
“Available manpower is a key consideration; nations with large populations tend to rank higher.
“Land-locked nations are not penalized for lack of a navy; naval powers are penalized for lack of diversity in available assets.
“NATO allies receive a slight bonus due to the theoretical sharing of resources,” GFP spelt out on its official website.
