Egypt came in second place on Global Firepower’s 2021 Middle East Military Strength list, following Turkey and preceding Iran. Saudi Arabia came in fourth, followed by Israel, the UAE, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain, and Lebanon.
The website added that the Middle East remains a tumultuous region of the world, forcing various regional players to maintain large standing armies. Key regional powers remain Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
Global Firepower ranked the 15 countries by examining over 50 individual factors to determine a given nation’s PowerIndex (‘PwrIndx’) score, with categories ranging from military might and financials to logistical capability and geography.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute issued an October 2020 report showing that Egypt, while having one of the strongest military forces in the region, reported just under four billion dollars in military expenditures between 2009 and 2019, placing it ninth in the region for military spending.
The report points out that the country’s official spending data may not reflect its actual military expenses.
