Military profile
Germany Military Strength
Germany ranks #25 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 184,000 active personnel. It spent $113.6 billion on its military in 2025 (2.3% of GDP).
Germany armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 184,000#26 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 15,000#64 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 0#113 of 145
- Army personnel
- 65,000#53 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 30,000#27 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 16,500#35 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 601#18 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 134#19 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 75#12 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 287#12 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 55#12 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 266#52 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 121#32 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 0#107 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 38#57 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 12#8 of 113
- Corvettes
- 5#24 of 113
- Submarines
- 6#17 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 0#106 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 12#11 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $113.6 billion#4 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 2.3%#50 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $4.24 trillion#5 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Germany military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Germany grew by 164% between 2010 and 2025, from $43.1 billion to $113.6 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 2.3% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Germany
Branches and forces
Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr): German Army (Deutsche Heer), German Navy (Deutsche Marine, includes naval air arm), German Air Force (Deutsche Luftwaffe, includes air defense), Cyber and Information Space (Cyber und Informationsraum) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 185,000 active-duty military personnel (2025)
Service age and conscription
17-23 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women (must have completed compulsory full-time education and have German citizenship); service obligation 7-23 months or 12 years (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the inventory of Federal Armed Forces is comprised of weapons systems produced domestically or jointly with other European countries and Western imports, particularly from the US; Germany's defense industry is capable of manufacturing the full spectrum of air, land, and naval military weapons systems; it also participates in joint defense production projects with European partners and the US (2025)
Deployments abroad
up to 500 Iraq (NATO); 300 Kosovo (NATO/KFOR), Lebanon 170 (UNIFIL); up to 1,700 Lithuania (NATO) (2025)
Good to know
the Bundeswehr’s core mission is the defense of Germany and its NATO partners; it has a wide range of peacetime duties, including crisis management, cyber security, deterrence, homeland security, humanitarian and disaster relief, and international peacekeeping and stability operations; as a key member of NATO and the EU, the Bundeswehr typically operates in a coalition environment, and its capabilities are largely based on NATO and EU planning goals and needs; it has participated in a range of NATO and EU missions in Europe, Africa, and Asia, as well as global maritime operations; the Bundeswehr has close bilateral defense ties with a number of EU countries, including the Czechia, France, the Netherlands, and Romania, as well as the UK and the US; it also contributes forces to UN peacekeeping missions the Bundeswehr was established in 1955; at the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, it had nearly 600,000 personnel, over 7,000 tanks, and 1,000 combat aircraft; in addition, over 400,000 soldiers from other NATO countries—including about 200,000 US military personnel—were stationed in West Germany; in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the Bundeswehr shrank by more than 60% in size (over 90% in tanks and about 80% in aircraft), while funding fell from nearly 3% of GDP and over 4% of government spending in the mid-1980s to 1.2% and 1.6% respectively; by the 2010s, the Bundeswehr’s ability to fulfill its regional security commitments had deteriorated; the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and full-scale assault on Ukraine in 2022 led to renewed emphasis on Germany’s leadership role in European defense and NATO and efforts to boost funding for the Bundeswehr to improve readiness, modernize, and expand (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2025: 2.4% · 2024: 2% · 2023: 1.6% · 2022: 1.5% · 2021: 1.4%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Germany compared with its neighbours
| Country | Strength rank | Military spending |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | #25 | $113.6 billion |
 Austria | #84 | $6.4 billion |
 Czechia | #48 | $7.1 billion |
 Netherlands | #39 | $28.9 billion |
 Poland | #20 | $46.8 billion |
 France | #9 | $68.0 billion |
 Switzerland | #44 | $7.6 billion |
 Denmark | #50 | $14.9 billion |
 Belgium | #68 | $14.5 billion |
 Luxembourg | #126 | $855 million |