Military profile
Senegal Military Strength
Senegal ranks #125 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 17,000 active personnel. It spent $567 million on its military in 2025 (1.6% of GDP).
Senegal armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 17,000#104 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 0#84 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 0#113 of 145
- Army personnel
- 10,000#111 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 1,000#112 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 500#101 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 27#108 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 0#95 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 13#107 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 5#62 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 0#115 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 0#96 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 20#94 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 6#90 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
- 10#74 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 0#53 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $567 million#101 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 1.6%#85 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $55.3 billion#103 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Senegal military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Senegal grew by 190% between 2010 and 2025, from $196 million to $567 million (current US dollars), and stood at 1.6% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Senegal
Branches and forces
Senegalese Armed Forces (les Forces Armées Sénégalaises, FAS): Army (l’Armée de Terre, AT), Senegalese National Navy (Marine Séenéegalaise, MNS), Senegalese Air Force (l'Arméee de l'Air du Séenéegal, AAS), National Gendarmerie Ministry of Interior: National Police (2025)
Personnel
approximately 25,000 active Armed Forces personnel, including the Gendarmerie (2025)
Service age and conscription
18-28 (up to 35 for specialized roles); 24-month service commitment (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the military has a mix of older, secondhand, and some more modern equipment from a variety of suppliers, including China, France, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Türkiye, and the US (2025)
Deployments abroad
190 Central African Republic (MINUSCA; plus about 575 police); approximately 380 police Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) (2025)
Good to know
the Senegalese military is responsible for both territorial defense and internal security; it also assists the civilian government in such areas as preventive healthcare, infrastructure development, environmental protection, and disaster response; key areas of focus for the military include a low-level insurgency in the country's south, maritime security, and securing the border against smuggling and Sahel-based Islamist insurgent groups affiliated with al-Qa'ida and the Islamic State; the military participates in foreign peacekeeping deployments and multinational exercises; its closest security partner is France, which has long maintained a military presence in Senegal Senegalese security forces have been engaged in a low-level counterinsurgency campaign in the southern Casamance region against factions of the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of the Casamance (MDFC) since 1982; the conflict is one of longest running low-level insurgencies in the World, having claimed more than 5,000 lives while leaving another 60,000 displaced; in recent years, nearly all of the MDFC factions have agreed to cease hostilities (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 1.6% · 2023: 1.5% · 2022: 1.6% · 2021: 1.7% · 2020: 1.5%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Senegal compared with its neighbours
| Country | Strength rank | Military spending |
|---|---|---|
| Senegal | #125 | $567 million |
 Gambia | — | $15 million |
 Mauritania | #132 | $322 million |
 Mali | #110 | $953 million |
 Guinea | — | $601 million |
 Guinea-Bissau | — | $22 million |