Military profile
Finland Military Strength
Finland ranks #51 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 24,000 active personnel. It spent $8.1 billion on its military in 2025 (2.6% of GDP).
Finland armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 24,000#91 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 900,000#5 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 14,000#58 of 145
- Army personnel
- 42,000#72 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 41,100#17 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 38,200#19 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 166#54 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 55#37 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 20#94 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 0#79 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 239#56 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 115#33 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 662#18 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 75#46 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
- 8#80 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 18#6 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $8.1 billion#36 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 2.6%#39 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $260.0 billion#58 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Finland military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Finland grew by 117% between 2010 and 2025, from $3.7 billion to $8.1 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 2.6% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Finland
Branches and forces
Finnish Defense Forces (FDF; Puolustusvoimat): Army (Maavoimat), Navy (Merivoimat), Air Force (Ilmavoimat) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 31,000 active-duty military personnel (2025)
Service age and conscription
all Finnish men are obligated to serve 5.5-12 months of service within a branch of the military or the Border Guard upon reaching the age of 18 (length of service depends on the type of duty); women 18-29 may volunteer for service; there is also an option to perform non-military service which lasts for 8.5 or 11.5 months; after completing their initial conscript obligation, individuals enter the reserves and remain eligible for mobilization until the age of 50 for rank-and-file and 60 for non-commissioned and commissioned officers (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory consists of a mix of modern European, Israeli, South Korean, US, and domestically produced weapons systems; the Finnish defense industry produces a variety of military equipment, including wheeled armored vehicles and naval vessels; Finland also cooperates with other European countries and the US in the joint production of armaments (2025)
Deployments abroad
165 Lebanon (UNIFIL); Finland also contributes to several ongoing EU and NATO missions (2025)
Good to know
the Finnish Defense Forces (FDF) are focused primarily on territorial defense, which is based on having a large, trained reserve force created by general conscription; other FDF responsibilities include support to international peacekeeping operations and some domestic security duties, such as assisting the National Police in maintaining law and order in crises the FDF is also focused on fulfilling its commitment to NATO; following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Finland applied for NATO membership, gaining entry in April 2023; Finland had been part of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program since 1994 and participated in NATO-led military missions in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq; in 2024, it joined NATO's Air Policing mission in Eastern Europe Finland is a signatory of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy and actively participates in EU crisis management missions and operations; the FDF also cooperates closely with the militaries of other Nordic countries through the Nordic Defense Cooperation structure (NORDEFCO; established 2009), which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden and involves cooperation in such areas as armaments, education, human resources, training and exercises, and operations; Sweden, the UK, and the US are close bi-lateral defense partners; in 2022, Finland signed a mutual security agreement with the UK, and since 2014 has been part of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a pool of high-readiness military forces from 10 Baltic and Scandinavian countries designed to respond to a wide range of contingencies in the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea, and High North regions (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2025: 2.8% · 2024: 2.4% · 2023: 2.1% · 2022: 1.7% · 2021: 1.4%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Russia
Norway
Sweden