Military profile
Jamaica Military Strength
Jamaica is not covered by the Global Firepower ranking. It spent $287 million on its military in 2025 (1.4% of GDP).
Jamaica armed forces in numbers
Finance
- Military spending
- $287 million#116 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 1.4%#95 of 156
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Jamaica military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Jamaica grew by 148% between 2010 and 2025, from $116 million to $287 million (current US dollars), and stood at 1.4% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Jamaica
Branches and forces
Jamaica Defense Force (JDF): Jamaica Regiment (Land Force), Maritime, Air, and Cyber Command (MACC), Support Brigade, Caribbean Military Academy, Jamaica National Reserve (2025)
Personnel
approximately 4,000 active Jamaica Defense Forces (2025)
Service age and conscription
18-23 for voluntary military service (17 with parental consent) for men and women; 18-28 for the reserves; no conscription; since 2017, the JDF's standard mode of recruitment is to enroll recruits ages 18-23 through the Jamaica National Service Corps (JNSC), which has a service requirement of 12 months (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the JDF's inventory features equipment mostly from Australia, the Netherlands, and the US (2025)
Good to know
in addition to its responsibility of defending against external aggression, the Jamaican Defense Force's (JDF) primary missions are border, cyber, internal, and maritime security; other missions include search and rescue, disaster response, humanitarian assistance, and peacekeeping; it has arrest authority and partners with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), particularly in support of combating crime and violence; both the JDF and JCF are under the Ministry of National Security, which directs policy for the security forces; the JDF participates in bilateral and multinational training exercises, including with the armed forces of Canada, the UK, the US, and other Caribbean nations while Jamaica had a militia force as early as the 1660s, the JDF was constituted in 1962 from the West India Regiment (WIR), a British colonial regiment which dates back to 1795 (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 1.4% · 2023: 1.2% · 2022: 1.3% · 2021: 1.4% · 2020: 1.7%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).