Military profile
Israel Military Strength
Israel ranks #18 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 173,000 active personnel. It spent $48.3 billion on its military in 2025 (7.8% of GDP).
Israel armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 173,000#29 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 465,000#12 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 8,000#80 of 145
- Army personnel
- 200,000#14 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 89,000#6 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 20,000#31 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 601#18 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 241#11 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 32#21 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 126#29 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 48#14 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 2,200#12 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 650#11 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 300#38 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 300#19 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 0#56 of 113
- Corvettes
- 7#10 of 113
- Submarines
- 5#23 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 45#20 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 0#53 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $48.3 billion#11 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 7.8%#3 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $355.0 billion#50 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Israel military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Israel grew by 253% between 2010 and 2025, from $13.7 billion to $48.3 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 7.8% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Israel
Branches and forces
Israel Defense Forces (IDF): Ground Forces, Israel Naval Force (IN, includes commandos), Israel Air Force (IAF, includes air defense) Ministry of National Security: Israeli Police (2025)
Personnel
approximately 170,000 active-duty Defense Forces (130,000 Ground Forces; 10,000 Naval; 30,000 Air Force); more than 400,000 reserves (2025)
Service age and conscription
18-28 years of age for voluntary military service; 18 months service for men, 12 months for women; 18-21 years of age for compulsory military service for men and women; Jews and Druze can be conscripted; Christians, Circassians, and Muslims may volunteer; conscript service obligation is up to 36 months for enlisted personnel (depending on sex, marital status, and military occupation); officers serve 48 months; Air Force pilots commit to 9 years of service (2024)
Equipment and suppliers
the majority of the IDF's inventory is comprised of weapons that are domestically produced or imported from Europe and the US; the US has been the leading supplier of arms in recent years; Israel's defense industry can develop, produce, support, and sustain a wide variety of weapons systems for both domestic use and export, particularly armored vehicles, unmanned aerial systems, air defense, and guided missiles (2025)
Good to know
the IDF is responsible for external defense but also has some domestic security responsibilities; its primary operational focuses include the threat posed by Iran, instability in Syria, and terrorist organizations, including HAMAS, Hizballah, and Palestine Islamic Jihad; since its creation from armed Jewish militias during the First Arab-Israeli War in 1948-49, the IDF, particularly the Ground Force, has been guided by a requirement to rapidly mobilize and defend the country’s territory from numerically superior neighboring countries; the active-duty military is backed up by a large force of trained reserves--approximately 300-400,000 personnel--that can be mobilized rapidly Israel’s primary security partner is the US; consistent with a 10-year (2019-2028) Memorandum of Understanding, the US annually provides over $3 billion in military financing and cooperative military programs, such as missile defense; the US also provides Israel access to US-produced military weapons systems including advanced fighter aircraft; Israel has Major Non-NATO Ally status with the US, a designation under US law that provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has operated in the Golan between Israel and Syria since 1974 to monitor the ceasefire following the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and supervise the areas of separation between the two countries; UNDOF consists of about 1,300 total personnel (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 8% · 2023: 5% · 2022: 4.5% · 2021: 5% · 2020: 5%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Jordan
Egypt
Syria
Lebanon