The extensive reservist army and recent years’ investments in the ground forces elevate the Finnish armed forces to NATO’s middle caste.
Finland has better armed forces than, for example, Estonia or the Czech Republic, but Poland and Spain, for example, wrestle in a heavier division than Finland.
This is evident when key NATO countries are compared on a few factors that measure military performance, such as defense budget and size of armed forces.
A meaningful comparison of the defense forces is difficult, because the countries have prepared for different wars. The Czech Republic does not need submarines because it has no coastline. Britain, on the other hand, needs fewer tanks because it is an island.
Even in personnel numbers, putting the armed forces in order of magnitude is not quite simple.
For example, in the United States, more than 700,000 civilians work under the defense administration, who are not considered military personnel in NATO’s calculations. However, in the case of Estonia, civilians have access to the statistics about NATO’s manpower.
In the case of Finland, included the paid professional soldiers of the Defense Forces and conscripts who are trained annually. If the reservist army were included, Finland’s wartime strength would rise to around 280,000 soldiers.
In the big picture, the defense budget is the best metric for comparing the armed forces.
The United States spends more than twice as much money on its armed forces as all other NATO countries combined. With this investment and repeated warfare, Washington has been able to create an armed force that is superior in performance to any European country.
However, comparing the United States to other NATO countries is somewhat misleading. The United States has military commitments around the world, and its forces are molded to that end.
In practice, the United States can never command all of its armed forces in Europe. A more realistic comparison would require information on how much the United States has prepared to move its forces across the Atlantic in various scenarios.