The Global Fire Power ranking, or GFP, measures countries’ military strength and assigns a power index number in order to compare them to other countries. Many factors are taken into consideration: manpower, equipment, geographical location, logistics and finance.

Based on available information, South Sudan is ranked among the top most powerful militaries in Africa as of May 2016, according to GlobalFirepower.com.

South Sudan is ranked as the eighteenth most powerful military in Africa as its sister country Sudan is ranked 8^th, Kenya 11^th, and Uganda 16^th.

According to Global Firepower, South Sudan has an active arms stockpile of 110 battle tanks, 250 armoured fighting vehicles, 25 self-propelled guns, 25 towed artillery, 15 multi-launch rocket system, 9 helicopters and 210,000 active soldiers.

South Sudan military budget stands at $ 545,000,000 making it the second highest military budget in East Africa after Kenya recently increased its military spending to $ 595,000,000.

Egypt, which receives billions of dollars in US military aid, tops the list of Africa’s fearsome armies, followed by Algeria, Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa in that order.