Military profile
Paraguay Military Strength
Paraguay ranks #88 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 20,000 active personnel. It spent $421 million on its military in 2025 (0.9% of GDP).
Paraguay armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 20,000#100 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 160,000#27 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 10,000#66 of 145
- Army personnel
- 35,000#77 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 7,500#62 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 5,400#59 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 39#99 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 0#95 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 14#105 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 0#79 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 10#111 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 0#96 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 56#77 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 0#98 of 145
Finance
- Military spending
- $421 million#109 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 0.9%#125 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $85.0 billion#92 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Paraguay military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Paraguay grew by 106% between 2010 and 2025, from $205 million to $421 million (current US dollars), and stood at 0.9% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Paraguay
Branches and forces
Armed Forces of Paraguay (Fuerzas Armadas de Paraguay; aka Armed Forces of the Nation or Fuerzas Armadas de la Nación): Paraguayan Army (Ejército Paraguayo), Paraguayan Navy (Armada Paraguaya; includes marines), Paraguayan Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Paraguaya) Ministry of Internal Affairs: National Police of Paraguay (Policía Nacional del Paraguay, PNP) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 15,000 active duty Armed Forces (2025)
Service age and conscription
18-25 years of age for voluntary service for men and women; all men 18-25 are required to perform military service for at least 12 months (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory is comprised of mostly older or obsolescent equipment from a variety of foreign suppliers, particularly Brazil and the US; in recent years, the military has received small quantities of more modern equipment, such as light attack aircraft from Brazil and secondhand helicopters from Taiwan (2025)
Good to know
the Paraguayan military is responsible for external defense and has a role in domestic security duties; it provides support for natural disasters and cooperates with the National Police and other internal security organizations in combating the Paraguayan People’s Army (Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo or EPP) and transnational criminal organizations, largely narcotics traffickers; the EPP is a small, domestic criminal/guerrilla group operating in the rural northern part of the country along the border with Brazil; the activities of the EPP and its offshoots—Marsical López’s Army (EML) and the Armed Peasant Association (ACA)—have consisted largely of isolated attacks on remote police and army posts, or against ranchers and peasants accused of aiding Paraguayan security forces the Paraguayan military has deployed small numbers of troops on UN peacekeeping missions and cooperates with neighboring countries, such as Argentina and Brazil, on security issues, particularly organized crime and narco-trafficking in what is known as the Tri-Border Area; Paraguay has not fought a war against a neighboring country since the Chaco War with Bolivia in the 1930s (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 0.8% · 2023: 0.8% · 2022: 0.8% · 2021: 1% · 2020: 1%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Argentina
Brazil
Bolivia