Discover the secrets of the world’s most powerful navies with the latest submarine rankings! As of July 2024, Russia leads the pack with 65 submarines, closely followed by the U.S. with 64 and China with 61, making up 40% of all submarines globally. While Russia tops the list in numbers, the U.S. shines in technology, boasting submarines like the advanced Columbia-class and the formidable Seawolf-class, which are decades ahead of their rivals. The Russian Sierra II Class, designed for deep-sea missions against U.S. submarines, remains one of the priciest and most sophisticated in their fleet. Dive into this underwater power struggle to see how these nations are reshaping naval warfare!
Because they offer strategic, covert capabilities for offensive, deterrent, and surveillance operations in undersea environments, submarines are essential to fleets.
Based on information from GlobalFirepower.com, this chart, provided by Bruno Venditti of Visual Capitalist, ranks the top 12 nations in terms of the number of military submarines they possessed as of July 2024.
Russia Commands the Largest Fleet
First place goes to Russia with 65 submarines, then the United States with 64, and China with 61.
Together, the three nations make up 40% of the world’s fleet.
But in terms of technology, the United States leads.
The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Samuel Paparo, claims that American submarine technology is one generation, or ten to twenty years, ahead of that of competitors like China.
The most advanced ship of its type is the Columbia-class nuclear submarine, the newest addition to the U.S. Navy. It has sixteen missile tubes and is covert.
In addition, the US fleet possesses submarines of the Seawolf class, which were built to replace the outdated Los Angeles class to counter the danger posed by Soviet ballistic missile submarines.
The planned fleet of 29 submarines to be built in the 1980s was whittled down to 12. The program was scaled back to just three submarines with the end of the Cold War with each submarine costing roughly $3 billion.
The Sierra II Class, or Project 945A Kondor Class, is still one of the priciest and deep-diving submarines in the Russian fleet. These ships were specifically designed for missions of seek and destroy against ballistic missile submarines fuelled by nuclear energy in the United States.
Last year, GreatGameInternational reported that, according to Global Firepower’s ranking, the top 25 combat tank fleets were listed, with Russia taking the lead.
