Military profile
Austria Military Strength
Austria ranks #84 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 23,000 active personnel. It spent $6.4 billion on its military in 2025 (1.1% of GDP).
Austria armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 23,000#94 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 160,000#27 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 0#113 of 145
- Army personnel
- 125,000#32 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 4,300#82 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 0#113 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 101#72 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 15#69 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 63#53 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 0#79 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 56#88 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 53#53 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 0#107 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 0#98 of 145
Finance
- Military spending
- $6.4 billion#42 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 1.1%#108 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $465.1 billion#43 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Austria military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Austria grew by 97% between 2010 and 2025, from $3.2 billion to $6.4 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 1.1% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Austria
Branches and forces
Austrian Armed Forces (Bundesheer): Land Forces, Air Force, Cyber Forces, Special Operations Forces, Militia (reserves) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 22,000 active Armed Forces (includes about 14,000 regular troops and around 8,000 reservists/militia undergoing refresher training) (2025)
Service age and conscription
registration requirement at age 17, the legal minimum age for voluntary military service; men above the age of 18 are subject to compulsory military service; women may volunteer; compulsory service is for 6 months, or optionally, alternative civil/community service (Zivildienst) for 9 months (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory includes a mix of domestically produced and imported armaments from European countries and the US; the Austrian defense industry produces a range of equipment and partners with other countries (2025)
Deployments abroad
210 Bosnia-Herzegovina (EUFOR stabilization force); 100 Kosovo (NATO/KFOR); 160 Lebanon (UNIFIL) (2025)
Good to know
the military’s primary responsibilities are national defense and protecting Austria’s neutrality; it also has some domestic security and disaster response responsibilities; each of the nine federal states has a military command that provides a link between the military and civil authorities; the main tasks of these commands include providing military assistance during disasters and supporting security police operations the Austrian military contributes to international peacekeeping and humanitarian missions; Austria has been constitutionally militarily non-aligned since 1955 but is an EU member and actively participates in EU peacekeeping and crisis management operations under the EU Common Security and Defense Policy; Austria is not a member of NATO but joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace framework in 1995 and participates in some NATO-led crisis management and peacekeeping operations; more than 100,000 Austrian military and civilian personnel have taken part in more than 50 international peace support and humanitarian missions since 1960 (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 1% · 2023: 0.9% · 2022: 0.7% · 2021: 0.8% · 2020: 0.7%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
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