Military profile
Colombia Military Strength
Colombia ranks #43 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 360,000 active personnel. It spent $14.5 billion on its military in 2025 (3.2% of GDP).
Colombia armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 360,000#14 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 845,000#6 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 185,000#14 of 145
- Army personnel
- 180,000#19 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 25,000#28 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 35,000#20 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 465#27 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 17#63 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 38#16 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 211#18 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 0#79 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 0#115 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 6#91 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 110#61 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 0#98 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 9#17 of 113
- Corvettes
- 2#32 of 113
- Submarines
- 4#26 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 53#15 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 0#53 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $14.5 billion#29 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 3.2%#25 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $685.0 billion#32 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Colombia military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Colombia grew by 39% between 2010 and 2025, from $10.4 billion to $14.5 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 3.2% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Colombia
Branches and forces
Military Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Militares de Colombia): National Army (Ejercito Nacional), Colombian Aerospace Force (Fuerza Aeroespacial Colombiana, FAC), Colombian Navy (Armada de Colombia; includes Coast Guard); National Police of Colombia (Policia Nacional de Colombia, PNC) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 260,000 active Military Forces; approximately 150,000 National Police (2025)
Service age and conscription
18-24 years of age for compulsory (men) and voluntary (men and women) military (and police) service; conscript service obligation is 18 months or 12 months for those with a college degree; conscripted soldiers reportedly include regular soldiers (conscripts without a high school degree), drafted high school graduates (bachilleres), and rural (campesino) soldiers who serve in their home regions (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory includes a mix of domestically produced and imported armaments from a variety of suppliers, including Brazil, Canada, Germany, Israel, South Korea, and the US; Colombia's defense industry is active in producing air, land, and naval platforms (2025)
Deployments abroad
275 Egypt (MFO) (2025)
Good to know
the Colombian military is responsible for defending and maintaining the country’s independence, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity but also has a considerable internal security role, which includes protecting the civilian population, as well as private and state-owned assets, and ensuring a secure environment; the military’s primary focus is the conduct of counterinsurgency and counter-narcotics operations against domestic illegal armed groups, including drug traffickers, several factions of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) terrorist group, and the insurgent/terrorist group National Liberation Army (ELN) border security is also a focus, particularly with Venezuela where economic and political instability has brought refugees and attracted narcotics trafficking and other cross-border crime; both the ELN and FARC dissidents operate openly in the border region; ELN and FARC insurgents have also used neighboring Ecuador to rest, resupply, and shelter Colombia has close security ties with the US, including joint training, military assistance, and designation in 2022 as a Major Non-NATO Ally, which provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense, trade, and security cooperation; it also has close security ties with regional neighbors, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru; Colombian military and security forces have training programs with their counterparts from a variety of countries, mostly those from Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 3.4% · 2023: 3% · 2022: 3% · 2021: 3.2% · 2020: 3.4%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Venezuela
Brazil
Peru
Ecuador
Panama