In a July Congressional report on the military’s special operations forces, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) forgot what ‘classified’ meant and leaked the exact number of personnel in each American special operations unit.

Security concerns aside, the data that is now publicly available to the entire world over provides some interesting points of comparison. In terms of active duty personnel, American special operations units actually outnumber full-fledged militaries.

Let’s take a headcount.

Navy SEALS: 8,195

Army Rangers: 3,473

Marine Raiders: 1,475

Special forces: 22,845

Total: 35,988

For an enormous military force like the United States, 36,000 (ish) troops is just a drop in the ocean. According to GlobalFirepower.com, however, the raw manpower of our most elite units could overrun the entire armed forces of 50 nations.

The Highlights

Bulgaria

Our special forces only just outnumber the Bulgarian military. After the Cold War ended and Bulgaria no longer needed a vast military to keep the Russians at bay, the Bulgarian armed forces shrunk to 35,000.

Norway

Norway’s military force weighs in at 26,200. Of all those soldiers, you can blame 25 of them for turning the Harlem Shake into an Internet-wide meme imitated by militaries all over the world, including our own.

Sweden

The Swedes make it their policy to remain neutral in international conflicts, even to the point of sheltering foreigners like Edward Snowden. As such, Sweden only boasts a military force of 14,000.

Kuwait

The United States went to war in 1990 to defend this small country from an Iraq invasion. Now that it relies on the U.S. for much of its military support, Kuwait only as 15,500 people in its armed forces.

Estonia

A friend of The SITREP is from Estonia, so we were obligated to include the stats of this humble European country: 3,500 servicemen. There are American high schools that are more populated than that. The Army Rangers are only 27 people shy of that number.

(Photo Credit: US Army | Flickr)