The strength of the American Military lies in its’ Non-Commission Officers – NCOs. NCOs are basically the micro-managers of the American Military, Corporals and above (the rank right before Sergeant). In the business world, NCOs would be the entry and middle level managers of the company.

Just why are the NCOs so important? Because they are the immediate supervisors of a typical, entry rank soldier. NCOs serve as “glue” between the soldiers and their officers. In a typical American military unit, for example a platoon, for every 3-5 soldiers there would be One NCO. That NCO would then be directly responsible for his fire team, that kind of breakdown allows constant and direct supervision for each and every soldier, and it is the NCO that reports directly to his senior NCO or directly to the officer of the unit.

Now, let’s take a quick look comparing two military organizations – Russian and American.

Here we’ll be strictly looking at the “human” factor of the military, excluding ALL technological factors. Let’s assume that military technology-wise Russia and USA are the same, so that the only thing left to look at are the actual people that make up that military.

Let’s further assume that a basic American soldier and a Russian soldier are equal in their abilities. Let’s discount the fact that in order to join American military a soldier must pass certain physical and mental requirements (pull-ups, sit-ups, and a certain run time, there is also a written test which measures different analytical abilities), since in all fairness those tests are not very difficult for a “normal” young person to pass. And since there is no proof that either side has “extraordinary” physical or intellectual abilities – they are all human after all, we are assuming the Russian and American soldier would perform equally well in battle conditions.

Let’s also assume that a basic American officer and a basic Russian officer (of any rank) are equal in their leadership abilities. That’s also not very difficult to conceive, comparing the best American military academies and the best Russian military academies would likely show that officers that graduate from those academies are roughly equal in their abilities.

What IS different between the two military systems is the expertise level of their NCOs. A typical Russian NCO (sergeant) is just a regular soldier who has a little more experience (a year of service or so) and has shown good leadership abilities, or someone who has come from a special NCO school, in that case the experience level of the NCO and the soldiers under his command would be most likely the same.

A typical American NCO is much different. Let’s take at a United States Marine Corps NCO - He will most likely be on his 2nd contract, which would mean that he has already served at least 4 years. Even though it is possible for a Sergeant to still be on his first contract, it is rarely so. A sergeant who has only served 3 years of his contract is a person who has demonstrated “extraordinary” leadership, physical and intellectual abilities and has been meritoriously promoted.

It is literally impossible to get promoted to a Sergeant by a regular promotion process in 3 years or less in the United States Marine Corps.

To simply put, an American NCO has at least 3 or more years more of military experience than that of a Russian NCO. Now, how do you think it would reflect upon their performance? In order to answer that, just compare a newly recruited Russian soldier to a soldier who about to go on demobilization after serving for the whole 2 years. The difference is day and night.

Having 3 more years of military experience allows the American NCOs to be more efficient leaders and soldiers, which in turn helps the officers make better decisions and makes American soldiers more capable on the battlefield.

And that difference in NCOs is what makes American military superior over the Russian military when considering ONLY the HUMAN factors of the organization.


Here are some answers to the counter arguments I will most likely hear:

1. There are Russian NCOs which have stayed to serve in the military after the initial 2 years. But keep in mind that this is NOT a usual situation and a typical Russian unit would most likely not have an NCO like that, it is very RARE. If you want to argue otherwise – let’s see some statistical proof.

2. You have to compare similar experiences when comparing NCOs. A Russian NCO who has served a year in Chechnya should be compared to an American NCO who has served a year in IRAQ. Actual battle experience is very important; it obviously makes a person a better soldier.

3. If you want to declare that a Russian person is simply better, stronger, smarter, etc – show some proof of that – let’s see some scientific work proving that fact, otherwise don’t say stupid things like that.

4. Fighting on your own country’s soil obviously makes you a better soldier, so when I’m only looking at the situation where soldiers are fighting on the neutral ground.