Military profile
Ethiopia Military Strength
Ethiopia ranks #49 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 150,000 active personnel. It spent $528 million on its military in 2025 (0.5% of GDP).
Ethiopia armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 150,000#33 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 0#84 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 0#113 of 145
- Army personnel
- 65,000#53 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 5,000#73 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 11,500#43 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 89#77 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 23#61 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 31#78 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 6#57 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 468#34 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 100#35 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 319#35 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 183#27 of 145
Finance
- Military spending
- $528 million#103 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 0.5%#145 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $264.1 billion#57 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Ethiopia military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Ethiopia grew by 81% between 2010 and 2025, from $291 million to $528 million (current US dollars), and stood at 0.5% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Ethiopia
Branches and forces
Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF; aka Federal Defense Force of Ethiopia, FDRE): Army, Air Force, Naval Force, Defense Cyber Main Directorate (2025)
Personnel
available information varies widely; estimated 150-300,000 active-duty Defense Force (2025)
Service age and conscription
18-22 years of age for voluntary military service; 24-month service obligation; no compulsory military service, but the military can conduct callups when necessary and compliance is compulsory (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the ENDF's inventory has traditionally been comprised of Russian, Soviet, and Eastern Bloc armaments; it suffered considerable equipment losses during the 2020-2022 Tigray conflict; in more recent years, Ethiopia has diversified its arms sources to include such suppliers as China, Türkiye, Ukraine, and the UAE; Ethiopia's defense industry produces small arms, as well as armored vehicles under license (2025)
Deployments abroad
1,500 South Sudan (UNMISS); estimated to have as many as 10,000 troops Somalia (approximately 2,500 under the AU; the remainder under a bilateral agreement with the Somali Government) (2025)
Good to know
the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) is focused on both external threats emanating from its neighbors and internal threats from multiple internal armed groups; since 1998, the ENDF has engaged in several conventional and counterinsurgency operations, including border wars with Eritrea (1998-2000) and Somalia (2006-2008) and internal conflicts with the Tigray regional state (2020-2022), multiple insurgent groups and ethnic militias, and the al-Shabaab terrorist group; as of 2025, the ENDF was actively conducting counterinsurgency operations against anti-government militants in several states, including the Amhara militia Fano and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), as well as al-Shabaab in Somalia (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 0.7% · 2023: 1% · 2022: 1.7% · 2021: 0.5% · 2020: 0.5%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Ethiopia compared with its neighbours
| Country | Strength rank | Military spending |
|---|---|---|
| Ethiopia | #49 | $528 million |
 Somalia | #142 | $199 million |
 South Sudan | #116 | $178 million |
 Eritrea | #113 | — |
 Kenya | #87 | $1.5 billion |
 Sudan | #75 | $369 million |