How exactly big is the military, anyway?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I've looked everywhere I can think of, but I can't seem to be able to find any current figures on the size of the American military. Aside from a Feb '04 article on Jane's, I can't find much else.

Of course, I may not be looking in the most obvious of places, so if anyone knows can point me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Maybe it's top secret so our enemies don't know exactly how big our military is.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Well, even a simple estimate or close approximation would help.

The article I found at Jane's:


Following a sustained effort by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to keep the size of the US Army from growing, despite heavy demands of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, senior DoD officials have now approved additional forces at least temporarily.

Army Chief of Staff Gen Peter Schoomaker told Congress on 28 January that the army would temporarily increase its number by 30,000 personnel: a move approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Several congressional leaders and some military officials had been pushing for permanent increases in the army's end-strength above the present authorised limit of 482,400 but Rumsfeld, Gen Schoomaker and other senior defence officials had resisted the move as being too costly and unnecessary. Gen Schoomaker told lawmakers the service is now 11,000 above this figure.

The army is the midst of deploying 80,000 troops to Iraq and withdrawing 130,000 to their bases in the US and Germany. Combined with troop moves into and out of Afghanistan the rotation will involve eight of the army's 10 active-duty divisions as well as Army National Guard and US Army Reserve units. Gen Schoomaker noted the army is planning another rotation of similar size in 2005 and again in 2006.

Gen Schoomaker said the new additional troops will be added by use of "stop-loss" orders whereby troops are not permitted to leave the force in times of crisis. This measure will add another 5,000 personnel to the army's strength over the next five months. Additional soldiers are expected to be found as thousands of non-combat tasks are shifted from uniformed military to civilian personnel.

The changes and additional troops would be paid for by 2003's $87 billion supplemental funding bill for Afghanistan and Iraq.

http://www.janes.com/defence/land_forces/news/jdw/jdw040202_1_n.shtml

[Ryan Pode]

7 Mil in the Army.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

There are not 7 million ppl in the army. China has the largest armed forces in the world at 2.5 million. The US has about 1.5 million with 700,000 in the army, and the rest in the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

[Ryan Pode]

She wanted an estimate. I gave her an estimate. Stuh Foo.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

an estimate is a reasonable guess. 7 million is not a reasonable guess.

[Ryan Pode]

It's very reasonable. Just factor in all the workers at the pentagon and on in D.C. working for the military.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

even with those numbers added there arent 7 million people directly involved in t military. 1.5 million troop smeans you're saying 5.5 million other workers which is more people than the city of San Francisco.