Military profile
Mozambique Military Strength
Mozambique ranks #112 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 12,000 active personnel. It spent $468 million on its military in 2025 (1.9% of GDP).
Mozambique armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 12,000#118 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 0#84 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 0#113 of 145
- Army personnel
- 6,500#129 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 4,000#83 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 550#96 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 19#118 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 8#85 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 8#119 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 2#68 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 186#64 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 0#96 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 0#107 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 0#98 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
- 0#53 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $468 million#107 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 1.9%#73 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $38.4 billion#118 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Mozambique military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Mozambique grew by 372% between 2010 and 2025, from $99 million to $468 million (current US dollars), and stood at 1.9% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Mozambique
Branches and forces
Armed Forces for the Defense of Mozambique (Forcas Armadas de Defesa de Mocambique, FADM): Army, Mozambique Navy, Mozambique Air Force Ministry of Interior: Mozambique National Police (PRM; includes the Rapid Intervention Unit, UIR), the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), Border Security Force; other security forces include the Presidential Guard and the Force for the Protection of High-Level Individuals (2025)
Personnel
estimated 12,000 active FADM (2025)
Service age and conscription
registration for military service is mandatory for all men and women at 18 years of age; 18-35 years of age for selective compulsory military service; 18 years of age for voluntary service for men and women; initial 60-month service obligation (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the FADM's inventory consists primarily of Soviet-era armaments, although in recent years it has received some secondhand equipment from a number of countries, including India, South Africa, and the UAE, mostly as donations (2025)
Good to know
the FADM is responsible for external security, cooperating with police on internal security, and responding to natural disasters and other emergencies; the primary focus of the FADM is countering an insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado by militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham terrorist group (ISIS-Mozambique; known locally as Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama‘a); since 2017, the conflict has claimed an estimated 6,000 lives and displaced an estimated one million persons; at Mozambique's request, Rwanda and several southern African countries under the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) deployed forces to Mozambique to combat the insurgency in 2021; the SADC forces departed in 2024; as of 2025, Rwanda continued to provide approximately 3,000 military and police personnel to assist Mozambican Defense and Security Forces, along with several hundred Tanzanian troops; the EU has also provided training assistance (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 2% · 2023: 2% · 2022: 2% · 2021: 2% · 2020: 1.5%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Malawi
Zimbabwe
Tanzania
South Africa
Zambia
Eswatini