Military profile
Argentina Military Strength
Argentina ranks #28 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 83,000 active personnel. It spent $3.9 billion on its military in 2025 (0.6% of GDP).
Argentina armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 83,000#52 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 0#84 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 20,000#51 of 145
- Army personnel
- 70,500#52 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 14,000#47 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 18,500#34 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 228#43 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 24#58 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 8#50 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 87#42 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 0#79 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 414#37 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 75#43 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 172#52 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 26#66 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 4#10 of 113
- Frigates
- 0#56 of 113
- Corvettes
- 9#7 of 113
- Submarines
- 2#34 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 13#66 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 0#53 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $3.9 billion#52 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 0.6%#142 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $900.0 billion#27 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Argentina military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Argentina grew by 12% between 2010 and 2025, from $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 0.6% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Argentina
Branches and forces
Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic (Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina): Argentine Army (Ejercito Argentino, EA), Navy of the Argentine Republic (Armada Republica, ARA; includes naval aviation and naval infantry), Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Argentina, FAA) Ministry of Security: Gendarmería Nacional Argentina (National Gendarmerie), Coast Guard (Prefectura Naval) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 75,000 active-duty Armed Forces (45,000 Army; 15,000 Navy, including about 3,500 marines; 15,000 Air Force) (2025)
Service age and conscription
18-24 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women; conscription suspended in 1995; citizens can still be drafted in times of crisis, national emergency, or war, or if the Defense Ministry is unable to fill all vacancies to keep the military functional (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the inventory of Argentina's armed forces is a mix of domestically produced and imported weapons, largely from Europe and the US; in recent years, France and the US have been the leading suppliers of equipment; Argentina has an indigenous defense industry that produces air, land, and naval systems (2025)
Deployments abroad
230 Cyprus (UNFICYP) (2025)
Good to know
the Argentine military’s primary responsibilities are territorial defense and protecting the country’s sovereignty; duties also include border security, countering narcotics trafficking, and other internal missions, such as disaster response and infrastructure development; it conducts support operations and has bases in Antarctica to promote an active presence in areas of national territory that are sparsely populated; the military also participates in both bilateral and multinational training exercises and supports UN peacekeeping operations Argentina participates in the Tripartite Command, an interagency security mechanism created by Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay to exchange information and combat transnational threats, such as crime and terrorism, in the Tri-Border Area; in addition, Argentina and Chile have a joint peacekeeping force known as the Combined Southern Cross Peacekeeping Force, designed to be made available to the UN; Argentina has Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status with the US, a designation under US law that provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation the Army and Navy were both created in 1810 during the Argentine War of Independence, while the Air Force was established in 1945; the military conducted coups d'état in 1930, 1943, 1955, 1962, 1966, and 1976; the 1976 coup, aka the "National Reorganization Process," marked the beginning of the so-called "Dirty War," a period of state-sponsored terrorism that saw the deaths or disappearances of thousands of Argentinians; the defeat in the 1982 Falklands War led to the downfall of the military junta (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 0.6% · 2023: 0.5% · 2022: 0.6% · 2021: 0.8% · 2020: 0.8%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Chile
Paraguay
Brazil
Bolivia
Uruguay