Military profile
Greece Military Strength
Greece ranks #30 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 130,000 active personnel. It spent $8.4 billion on its military in 2025 (3.0% of GDP).
Greece armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 130,000#37 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 220,500#22 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 35,000#39 of 145
- Army personnel
- 175,000#22 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 42,500#16 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 30,000#23 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 635#17 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 193#17 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 271#14 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 29#25 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 1,365#19 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 590#12 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 729#17 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 152#33 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 13#5 of 113
- Corvettes
- 0#47 of 113
- Submarines
- 11#10 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 35#28 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 8#17 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $8.4 billion#34 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 3.0%#32 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $295.0 billion#54 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Greece military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Greece grew by 3% between 2010 and 2025, from $8.2 billion to $8.4 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 3.0% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Greece
Branches and forces
Hellenic Armed Forces (HAF; Ellinikes Enoples Dynamis, EED): Hellenic Army (Ellinikos Stratos, ES; includes National Guard), Hellenic Navy (Elliniko Polemiko Navtiko, EPN), Hellenic Air Force (Elliniki Polemiki Aeroporia, EPA; includes air defense) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 112,000 active-duty military personnel (2025)
Service age and conscription
18 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women; all Greek men 19-45 are subject to compulsory military service; 12-month obligation for all services (note - as an exception, the duration of the full military service is 9 instead of 12 months if conscripts, after the initial training, serve the entire remaining time in certain areas of the eastern borders, in Cyprus, or in certain military units) (2026)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory consists of a mix of domestically produced and imported armaments from Europe and the US; in recent years, France, Germany, the UK, and the US have been major suppliers of weapons systems; Greece's defense industry is capable of producing a range of military hardware, including naval vessels and associated subsystems (2025)
Deployments abroad
approximately 1,000 Cyprus; 120 Kosovo (NATO); 130 Lebanon (UNIFIL) (2025)
Good to know
the Hellenic Armed Forces (HAF) are responsible for protecting Greece’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; the HAF also maintains a presence on Cyprus (the Hellenic Force in Cyprus or ELDYK) to assist and support the Cypriot National Guard; as a member of the EU, NATO, and other international organizations, the HAF participates in multinational peacekeeping and other security missions abroad, taking a particular interest in missions occurring in the near regions, such as the Balkans, the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, the Middle East, and North Africa; areas of focus for the HAF include instability in the Balkans, territorial disputes with Turkey, and support to European security through the EU and NATO Greece’s NATO membership is a key component of its security; it became a NATO member in 1952 and occupies a strategic location in the Eastern Mediterranean on NATO’s southern flank; Greece is host to several NATO facilities, including the Deployable Corps Greece (NDC-GR) headquarters in Thessaloniki, the Combined Air Operations Center in Larissa, the Multinational Peace Support Operations Training Center in Kilkis, the Multinational Sealift Coordination Center in Athens, and the Naval Base, Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre, and NATO Missile Firing Installation at Souda, Crete (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2025: 2.9% · 2024: 2.7% · 2023: 2.8% · 2022: 3.9% · 2021: 3.7%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Greece compared with its neighbours
| Country | Strength rank | Military spending |
|---|---|---|
| Greece | #30 | $8.4 billion |
 Bulgaria | #59 | $2.6 billion |
 North Macedonia | #108 | $375 million |
 Albania | #91 | $624 million |
 Türkiye | #11 | $30.0 billion |