Firepower!

This is coolbert:

 Something is not right here!!

 Something is VERY wrong!!

 From the GlobalFirepower.com [GFP] web site we have comparisons and ratings, those nations of the world, their military firepower conventional ONLY "compiled" from "various sources".

 That type of intelligence and data at one time only available to a handful elite at the very highest echelons of government now for the perusal of one and all.

 "GFP provides a unique analytical display of data covering global military powers with statistics compiled through various sources . . . nuclear capability is not taken into account for the final ranking . . . Therefore GFP comparisons are for consideration in a conventional war based solely on each individual nation's capabilities on land, at sea and through the air while including logistical and financial aspects when waging total war."

 Nuclear weaponry to include radiological, chemical and biological munitions NOT a consideration!!

The ability of a military to put lead on the target in the classical conventional sense on display and measured with a degree of accuracy!

 Sources [partial] of information listed as: "US Library of Congress; Central Intelligence Agency".

 And immediately I see a problem here.

NORTH KOREA [DPRK] is way down the list, shown as only # 22, barely ahead of the Philippines.

This cannot be right.

That NKPA [North Korean Peoples Army] of 1 million men lavishly equipped so we are told, ten thousand tube artillery pieces alone arrayed on the DMZ facing southward.

 My expectations were that the NKPA would have ranked and been listed as at least in the top half-dozen nations of the entire world with regard to military firepower.


This is not so??

 From the GlobalFirepower web site for North Korea alone we have the listing as extracted, artillery and anti-aircraft-artillery [AAA]:

 "North Korea Military Strength" 

* Towed Artillery - - 1,500 [2011]
* SPGs - - 1,600 [2011]
* MLRSs - - 600 [2011]
* Mortars - - 2,000 [2011]
* AA Weapons - - 650 [2011]

 [SPG = self-propelled-gun, MLRS = rocket artillery]

 Those "Final Thoughts" from the GlobalFirepower web site:

 "It goes without saying that lists such can be completely subjective, though the GFP intention is to be wholly unbiased. The final GFP rankings are based on a formula taking some 45 factors into account and compiling totals against each country, applying bonuses and penalties as needed to generate this list."

 Even with a million man army the NKPA threat on paper awesome but not so overwhelmingly so?

 From a single alternative source, FAS [Federation of American Scientists] we have figures as to merely the artillery assets of the NKPA that are more in line with what the U.S. military has long held to be the case: 

"Korean People's Army" [NKPA]

* Artillery [total] - - 11,200
* Self-propelled - - +5,500
 * Towed - - +3,000
 * Multiple rocket launchers - - 2,400
 * Mortars - - 60-160mm +9,000

 "Its artillery forces possessed over 8,300 of the 76.2 mm, 100 mm, 122 mm, 130 mm, 152 mm, and 170 mm howitzers and guns, over 2,700 of the 107 mm, 122 mm, 132 mm, 240 mm multiple rocket launchers, and more than 12,500 anti-aircraft guns."

 [under the Soviet system, all mortars of size greater than 122 mm are counted as artillery!!]

 Again from FAS that count as of 1999 the "Korean People's Army Equipment" artillery assets alone:

* ARTILLERY, SELF-PROPELLED - - 4,500
* ARTILLERY, TOWED - - 3,500
* ARTILLERY ROCKETS - - 2,600
* ANTI-AIRCRAFT ARTILLERY - - 7,800

 [AAA I would have to assume inclusive of all weaponry, heavy single and multiple barrel machine guns, and those conventional AAA of gun size as encountered by American airmen in the skies over North Vietnam] 

Who is to be believed here? GFP or FAS or the U.S military or WHOM? According to FAS, the NKPA possesses firepower from artillery alone FAR in excess of what GFP purports to be the case!!

There is a striking and marked deviation between the various figures for artillery assets alone! What about the rest?

Regardless of numbers alone, the NKPA artillery it must be realized is concentrated and focused in a manner that is indicative of offensive action, the blitzkrieg and not layered in depth as would be a defensive posture? Focused and concentrated firepower distorting absolute quantities, AND HOW THINGS ARE COUNTED BEING CRUCIAL, DEFINITIONS NOT TOTALLY UNDERSTOOD!!

 coolbert.