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I like this

I must say that I was surprised to read from several sources that the Finnish naval force is ranked as the 8th biggest in the world.

It must be for the number of ships and we seem to have quite a lot of them – 273 in total, even though the number varies a bit.

196 of these are landing craft.

All those little islands, you see?

12 thoughts on “I like this”

  1. It’s a load of crap though. If you rate navies by number of ships, North Korea has the largest navy in the world. Assuming they aren’t lying about number of course. If Liberia bought 1,000 inflatable dinghies it would get to the top of this list.

    By tonnage would seem to be the most sensible blunt measure: https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/links-navy.htm

    Naturally Finland is nowhere near the top 10.

    Incidentally, the first result I got when googling ‘world’s largest navies’ was a Business Insider article. I’m not sure who runs BI but it is full of dubious stats, fake news and utter horseshit.

  2. Coastal artillery was quite large with many boats and ships but is now part of the navy so that may increase the numbers.

  3. Gamecock said:
    “The shocking navy story is Australia. It has 2 destroyers, for example. 45 total ships.”

    But perhaps that’s sensible? What are their likely threats? Either it’s something sufficiently small and basic that even a navy that size can take it on (so long as the political will is there), or it’s China, but if China attacks Australia’s got no chance in a numbers game, so there’s no point trying.

  4. Yes, a few more ships is not going to make any difference against the Chinese navy.

    Instead, Australia is buying 200 of America’s new long range anti-ship missiles; imaginatively called Long Range Anti-Ship missiles (LRASM.) A very real capability.

  5. Bloke in North Dorset

    There was something on the Stratfor podcast about China’a navy. Apparently they haven’t got that capability, yet.

  6. hopefully the Finns haven’t gone down the route of the Royal navy where there are more admirals than ships.

  7. The Australians don’t need to be able to defeat the Chinese navy. Nor the Indian navy. They have to be able to inflict enough damage that the Chinese and/or Indians decide Australia isn’t worth the trouble.

    With a disarmed citizenry, Australia is wide open for invasion. China/India really, really want the land. So China/India will have a high bar on what they will take. I don’t think 200 anti-ship missiles will work.

    But it’s a good start. I’m glad to see them stepping up.

  8. @dearieme, Gamecock

    +1

    “toy aircraft carriers”: when beside Nimitz and Ford class they are – no cross-deck or cat&trap even though we invented both. Say thankyou to Brown for insisting assembled at Rosyth and thus fit under Forth bridges

    F35B – even though USA offered emals cat&trap for free

    @moqifen

    Finland has gone for stealth Frigates, Cutters etc – they know their place (not an insult)

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