Military profile
Rwanda Military Strength
Rwanda is not covered by the Global Firepower ranking. It spent $191 million on its military in 2025 (1.3% of GDP).
Rwanda armed forces in numbers
Finance
- Military spending
- $191 million#129 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 1.3%#101 of 156
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Rwanda military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Rwanda grew by 157% between 2010 and 2025, from $75 million to $191 million (current US dollars), and stood at 1.3% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Rwanda
Branches and forces
Rwanda Defense Force (RDF; Ingabo z’u Rwanda): Rwanda Army (Rwanda Land Force), Rwanda Air Force (Force Aerienne Rwandaise, FAR), Rwanda Reserve Force, Special Units Ministry of Internal Security: Rwanda National Police (2025)
Personnel
approximately 30-35,000 active Rwanda Defense Forces (2025)
Service age and conscription
typically 18-30 years of age for men and women for voluntary military service (including officer candidates and those with university degrees and specialized qualifications); enlistment is either as contract (5-years, renewable twice) or career professional; no conscription (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the RDF's inventory is a mix of older and some modern equipment from suppliers such as China, France, Israel, Russia/former Soviet Union, South Africa, and Türkiye (2025)
Deployments abroad
approximately 3,200 Central African Republic (about 2,200 under MINUSCA, plus some 700 police; approximately 1,000 under a bi-lateral agreement); estimated 3-4,000 Democratic Republic of the Congo; estimated 3,000 Mozambique (bilateral agreement to assist with combating an insurgency; includes both military and police forces); 2,600 (plus about 450 police) South Sudan (UNMISS) (2025)
Good to know
the principle responsibilities of the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) are ensuring territorial integrity and national sovereignty and preventing infiltrations of illegal armed groups from neighboring countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); since 2021, Rwanda has deployed RDF troops to the border region with the DRC to combat the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which it has accused the DRC of backing; Rwanda has been accused by the DRC, the UN, and the US of deploying RDF troops in the DRC and providing material support to the March 23 Movement (M23, aka Congolese Revolutionary Army) rebel group; the RDF also participates in UN and regional military operations, as well as multinational exercises; it has deployed several thousand RDF troops and police personnel to Mozambique to assist in combating an insurgency since 2021; Rwanda has mutual defense treaties with Kenya and Uganda the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) were established following independence in 1962; after the 1990-1994 civil war and genocide, the victorious Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front's military wing, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), became the country's military force; the RPA participated in the First (1996-1997) and Second (1998-2003) Congolese Wars; the RPA was renamed the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) in 2003, by which time it had assumed a more national character with the inclusion of many former Hutu officers as well as newly recruited soldiers (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 1.3% · 2023: 1.3% · 2022: 1.4% · 2021: 1.4% · 2020: 1.3%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Burundi
Tanzania
DR Congo
Uganda