Military profile
Poland Military Strength
Poland ranks #20 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 120,000 active personnel. It spent $46.8 billion on its military in 2025 (4.5% of GDP).
Poland armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 120,000#39 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 0#84 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 32,500#41 of 145
- Army personnel
- 65,000#53 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 37,000#21 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 12,500#42 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 459#28 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 91#24 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 208#19 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 30#23 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 569#31 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 490#15 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 0#107 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 205#24 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 2#42 of 113
- Corvettes
- 2#32 of 113
- Submarines
- 1#42 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 3#96 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 21#5 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $46.8 billion#14 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 4.5%#13 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $1.20 trillion#20 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Poland military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Poland grew by 432% between 2010 and 2025, from $8.8 billion to $46.8 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 4.5% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Poland
Branches and forces
Polish Armed Forces (Polskie Siły Zbrojne): Land Forces (Wojska Ladowe), Navy (Marynarka Wojenna), Air Force (Sily Powietrzne), Special Forces (Wojska Specjalne), Territorial Defense Forces (Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej), Cyberspace Defense Forces (Wojska Obrony Cyberprzestrzeni) Ministry of Interior and Administration: Polish National Police (Policja); Border Guard (Straż Graniczna or SG) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 235,000 active military personnel (2025)
Service age and conscription
18 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women; no conscription; professional soldiers serve on a permanent basis (for an unspecified period of time) or on a contract basis (for a specified period of time); initial contract period is 24 months (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory consists of a mix of some Soviet-era and a growing amount of more modern, NATO-compatible weapons systems; in recent years, significant suppliers of armaments have included Finland, South Korea, and the US; Poland has a domestic defense sector that produces or provides upgrades to various weapons systems, particularly ground systems such as tanks and other armored vehicles; it also cooperates with the European and US defense sectors (2025)
Deployments abroad
250 Kosovo (NATO/KFOR); up to 300 Latvia (NATO); 190 Lebanon (UNIFIL) (2025)
Good to know
the Polish Armed Forces are responsible for defense of the country's sovereignty and territory, deterring potential threats, and fulfilling Poland's commitments to NATO, EU, and European security; Poland’s geographic location on NATO’s eastern flank and its history of foreign invasion underpin the Polish military’s focus on territorial and border defense; in peacetime, the Armed Forces provide support to the Border Guard; other security concerns include hybrid threats from Russia and Belarus, such as cyberattacks, sabotage, and weaponized migration; since the 2010s, Poland has taken steps to enhance the security of its borders with Russia and Belarus since 2014, Poland has hosted several NATO military formations designed to enhance the defense of Poland and NATO’s eastern flank, including a US-led multinational NATO ground force battlegroup as part of the Alliance’s Enhanced Forward Presence initiative, NATO fighter detachments at Malbork Air Base, a NATO-led divisional headquarters (Multinational Division Northeast), which coordinates training and preparation activities of its respective subordinate battlegroups in Poland and Lithuania, and a corps-level NATO field headquarters (Multinational Corps Northeast); Poland also has increased the the US military presence in the country; Poland participates in a variety of EU and NATO military deployments in Africa, the Baltic States, Southern Europe, and the Middle East; Poland also provided support to the NATO mission in Afghanistan (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2025: 4.5% · 2024: 3.8% · 2023: 3.3% · 2022: 2.2% · 2021: 2.2%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Czechia
Slovakia
Ukraine
Germany
Belarus
Russia
Lithuania