Submarines are crucial for navies because they provide stealthy, strategic capabilities for surveillance, deterrence, and offensive operations in underwater environments.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, shows the top 12 countries by their number of military submarines as of July 2024, based on data from GlobalFirepower.com.

Russia Has the Biggest Fleet

Russia ranks first with 65 submarines, followed by the U.S. (64) and China (61).

Combined, the three countries account for 40% of the global fleet.

When it comes to technology, however, the U.S. is ahead.

According to Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. submarine technology is one generation, or 10 to 20 years, ahead of  counterparts like China.

The latest addition to the U.S. Navy, the Columbia-class nuclear submarine, is the most sophisticated vessel of its kind. It is stealthy and equipped with 16 missile tubes.

The American fleet also has the Seawolf class, designed to address the threat of Soviet ballistic missile submarines and replace the aging Los Angeles class of submarines.

During the 1980s, a fleet of 29 submarines was to be built, which was reduced to 12. With the end of the Cold War and each submarine costing about $3 billion, the program was reduced to only three units.

Among the Russian fleet, the Sierra II Class, also known as Project 945A Kondor Class, remains one of the most expensive and deep-diving submarines. These vessels were explicitly developed for search and destroy missions against U.S. nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.

If you liked this post, check out Mapped: The World’s Largest Armies in 2024. This graphic shows the top 10 countries by military personnel as of May 2024.