Military profile
Croatia Military Strength
Croatia ranks #69 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 15,000 active personnel. It spent $2.1 billion on its military in 2025 (2.0% of GDP).
Croatia armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 15,000#111 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 20,000#60 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 2,000#100 of 145
- Army personnel
- 7,100#125 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 1,250#108 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 1,400#83 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 80#80 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 12#72 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 42#68 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 0#79 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 75#85 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 25#69 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 231#47 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 105#37 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 0#56 of 113
- Corvettes
- 0#47 of 113
- Submarines
- 0#44 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 15#59 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 1#49 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $2.1 billion#65 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 2.0%#63 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $105.0 billion#84 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Croatia military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Croatia grew by 114% between 2010 and 2025, from $982 million to $2.1 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 2.0% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Croatia
Branches and forces
Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia (Oruzane Snage Republike Hrvatske, OSRH): Croatian Army (Hrvatska Kopnena Vojska, HKoV), Croatian Navy (Hrvatska Ratna Mornarica, HRM; includes Coast Guard), Croatian Air Force (Hrvatsko Ratno Zrakoplovstvo, HRZ) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 15,000 active-duty military personnel (2025)
Service age and conscription
18-29 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women; conscription abolished in 2008 but will be reinstated in 2026 when it will become mandatory for men aged 19-29 to undergo two months of basic military training (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory is a mix of Soviet-era (largely from the former Yugoslavia) equipment and a growing amount of more modern, NATO-compatible weapon systems from suppliers such as France, Germany, Türkiye, and the US (2025)
Deployments abroad
150 Kosovo (KFOR/NATO); also has a few hundred personnel participating in several other EU, NATO, and UN missions (2025)
Good to know
the Armed Forces of Croatia (OSRH) are responsible for the defense of Croatia’s sovereignty and territory, contributing to international humanitarian, peacekeeping, and security missions, and providing assistance to civil authorities for such missions as responding to disasters, search and rescue, anti-terrorism, and internal security in times of crisis if called upon by the prime minister or the president; Croatia joined NATO in 2009, and the OSRH participates in NATO missions, including its peacekeeping force in Kosovo and the Enhanced Forward Presence mission in Eastern Europe; it also contributes to EU and UN missions; the OSRH trains regularly with NATO and regional partners the OSRH was established in 1991 from the Croatian National Guard during the Croatian War of Independence (1991-95); during the war, the ground forces grew to as many as 60 brigades and dozens of independent battalions, and a single military offensive against Serbian forces in 1995 included some 100,000 Croatian troops; in 2000, Croatia initiated an effort to modernize and reform the OSRH into a small, professional military capable of meeting the challenges of NATO membership (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2025: 2% · 2024: 1.9% · 2023: 1.7% · 2022: 1.8% · 2021: 2%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Croatia compared with its neighbours
| Country | Strength rank | Military spending |
|---|---|---|
| Croatia | #69 | $2.1 billion |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina | #133 | $231 million |
 Slovenia | #86 | $1.2 billion |
 Hungary | #54 | $5.0 billion |
 Serbia | #58 | $2.8 billion |
 Montenegro | #128 | $177 million |