About the French Navy, if you take a look on a map you can see that France as almost as many costs than borders. So during history they were able to build a strong ground army and a good Navy. During US war of Independance, De Grasse allowed the French to bring 30,000 men in the US over the Rule Britannia. Also during WWII the British had to destroy the French fleet so Germans wouldn't take over it in order to fight the British with it. Also France is the third country in the world to have Nuclear Submarines (RN's are controlled by USN). I would say that if we ranked the US armies 100, France and Britain would be 10 and the rest of the world barely 5. Because it is true that France and Britain's armies are strong but because these are small countries they can't build more.