Military profile
Azerbaijan Military Strength
Azerbaijan ranks #57 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 65,000 active personnel. It spent $4.9 billion on its military in 2025 (6.5% of GDP).
Azerbaijan armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 65,000#59 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 300,000#16 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 15,000#53 of 145
- Army personnel
- 55,000#60 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 12,000#52 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 2,200#78 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 148#57 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 17#63 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 11#44 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 86#44 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 16#37 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 920#25 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 167#28 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 319#35 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 323#18 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 1#49 of 113
- Corvettes
- 0#47 of 113
- Submarines
- 4#26 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 13#66 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 7#20 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $4.9 billion#50 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 6.5%#8 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $140.0 billion#76 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Azerbaijan military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Azerbaijan grew by 234% between 2010 and 2025, from $1.5 billion to $4.9 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 6.5% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Azerbaijan
Branches and forces
Azerbaijan Armed Forces: Land Forces, Air Forces, Navy Forces, Special Forces, State Border Service, Coast Guard Ministry of Internal Affairs: Internal Troops, local police forces; Special State Protection Service (SSPS): National Guard (2025)
Personnel
information varies widely; estimated 100,000 active Armed Forces personnel (2025)
Service age and conscription
18-30 years of age for compulsory military service for men; 18-35 years of age voluntary/contractual service for men (18-40 for women volunteers); 18 months service for conscripts, 36 months for voluntary/contractual service (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
Baku has been actively upgrading the military's inventory for over a decade with equipment acquisitions from several sources, including Belarus, China, Israel, Russia, and Türkiye; while most of the military's equipment was once Soviet-era material, it now fields quantities of modern armaments, including armored vehicles, artillery systems, air defense systems, fighter aircraft, tanks, and UAVs (2025)
Good to know
the Azerbaijani military was established in 1991, although its origins go back to 1918; much of the military’s original equipment was acquired from former Soviet military forces that departed Azerbaijan by 1992; territorial defense is the military’s primary focus, particularly with regards to neighboring Armenia; a secondary focus is guarding against Iran; Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in open conflicts over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in 1991-94 and 2020; tensions continued following the 2020 conflict, and Azerbaijan seized the entire enclave in 2023 key bilateral security relationships include Israel, Russia, and Turkiye; Azerbaijan's ties with Turkiye have included weapons transfers, technical advice, bilateral training exercises, and military support during its conflicts with Armenia; Azerbaijan is not part of NATO but has had a cooperative relationship with it dating back to when it joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and has provided troops to NATO-led missions in Kosovo (1999-2008) and Afghanistan (2002-2014) (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 5.1% · 2023: 4.5% · 2022: 4.5% · 2021: 5% · 2020: 5%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Armenia
Iran
Georgia
Russia
Türkiye