Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) as of April 2016 has been ranked globally as the 92nd most powerful army, and the 16th on the African continent.
This is according to the latest rankings of the Global Firepower (GFP), a body that provides analytical display of data concerning modern military powers.
The GFP report was based on over 50 factors to determine a given nation’s power index.
“Ranking doesn’t simply rely on the total number of weapons, but focuses on weapon diversity to provide a better balance of fire power,” the report clarified.
The report placed the UPDF’s current active frontline personnel at 45,000 with 2000 reserves, out of 8.5million people who are fit for service.
“The available manpower is a key consideration and nations with large populations tend to rank higher,” the report pointed out.
In the East African Region, UPDF came behind Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) which was ranked Number 75 Globally and 11th in Africa. The Eastern Central Africa Region was dominated by Sudan which was ranked 71st and 8th in Africa, and DRC which came 73rd and 10th on the continent.
Tanzania came third in the East African region while neighboring Rwanda and Burundi didn’t make it to the list.
Globally the top five most powerful armies according to GFP are United States, Russia, China, India and France while in Africa; it is Egypt (12), Algeria (26), Ethiopia (42), Nigeria (44) and South Africa (46).
While the Ugandan army is highly respected in the region and on the continent for its principally successful work, it was penalized in the GFP ranking for being less self reliant and having a meager defense budget.
UPDF’s internal and foreign missions are largely boosted by western powers, especially the United States and international bodies.
The UPDF annual budget according to the report, currently stands at USD 280million compared to Kenya’s USD 595million.
The national army’s air force was also found insufficient, with a total of only 47 aircraft, (Kenya has 132), 13 inter-coptors, 13 fixed wing attackers, 19 transport aircraft, and 22 helicopters of which only 5 are attackers.
For being a land locked country, Uganda wasn’t penalized for lacking a formidable naval force.
In weighing each country’s fighting strength on paper the GFP report was considering “a large strong fighting force across the land, sea and air, backed by a resilient economy and defensible territory along with an efficient infrastructure.”
Nuclear weapons were not taken into account in these rankings.
“Powers are based on conventional weaponry in inventory as well as other factors such as economic strength, border size, self sustainability in regards to war time resources, etc.”
The Ugandan army is highly regarded for successfully flushing out the Lord’s Resistence Army out of the country and defeating the ADF rebels in Western Uganda as well as several other rebel groups.
The army has also been pivotal in the fight against the Al Shabaab terror group in Somalia and for restoring relative peace in neighboring South Sudan, through a 20 month internal armed conflict.
The UPDF spokesperson Lt Col Paddy Ankunda when contacted to collaborate the findings of the report, said he needed time to study it first.