Military profile
Bulgaria Military Strength
Bulgaria ranks #59 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 25,000 active personnel. It spent $2.6 billion on its military in 2025 (2.0% of GDP).
Bulgaria armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 25,000#88 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 36,000#56 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 0#113 of 145
- Army personnel
- 36,000#75 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 6,500#65 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 4,000#63 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 66#83 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 11#75 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 6#53 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 22#89 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 2#68 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 410#39 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 506#14 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 150#55 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 192#25 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 4#36 of 113
- Corvettes
- 2#32 of 113
- Submarines
- 0#44 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 0#106 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 12#11 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $2.6 billion#61 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 2.0%#65 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $155.1 billion#73 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Bulgaria military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Bulgaria grew by 211% between 2010 and 2025, from $833 million to $2.6 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 2.0% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Bulgaria
Branches and forces
Bulgarian Armed Forces (aka Bulgarian Army): Land Forces, Air Force, Navy Ministry of Interior: General Directorate National Police (GDNP), General Directorate Border Police (GDBP), Special Unit for Combating Terrorism (SOBT) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 28,000 active duty Armed Forces (2025)
Service age and conscription
18 years of age for voluntary service for men and women (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory consists largely of Soviet-era armaments, although in recent years Bulgaria has procured some more modern Western weapons systems in an effort to modernize and achieve NATO interoperability (2025)
Deployments abroad
160 Kosovo (NATO/KFOR) (2025)
Good to know
the Bulgarian military is responsible for guaranteeing Bulgaria’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, providing support to international peace and security missions, and contributing to national security in peacetime, including such missions as responding to disasters or assisting with border security; the military trains regularly including in multinational exercises with regional partners and with NATO since Bulgaria joined the organization in 2004; it also participates in overseas peacekeeping and other security missions under the EU, NATO, and the UN; in 2022, Bulgaria established and began leading a NATO multinational battlegroup as part of an effort to boost NATO defenses in Eastern Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; in 2021, Bulgaria approved a 10-year defense development program, which included calls for equipment upgrades and procurements, boosts in manpower, organizational reforms, and greater focus on such areas as cyber defense, communications, logistics support, and research and development the Bulgarian military has participated in several significant conflicts since its establishment in 1878, including the Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885), the First Balkan War (1912-13), the Second Balkan War (1913), World War I (1915-1918), and World War II (1941-45); during the Cold War it was one of the Warsaw Pact’s largest militaries with over 150,000 personnel and more than 200 Soviet-made combat aircraft (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2025: 2.1% · 2024: 2% · 2023: 1.9% · 2022: 1.6% · 2021: 1.6%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Bulgaria compared with its neighbours
| Country | Strength rank | Military spending |
|---|---|---|
| Bulgaria | #59 | $2.6 billion |
 Romania | #47 | $9.7 billion |
 Greece | #30 | $8.4 billion |
 Serbia | #58 | $2.8 billion |
 Türkiye | #11 | $30.0 billion |
 North Macedonia | #108 | $375 million |