Military profile
Serbia Military Strength
Serbia ranks #58 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 25,000 active personnel. It spent $2.8 billion on its military in 2025 (2.8% of GDP).
Serbia armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 25,000#88 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 50,000#47 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 5,000#88 of 145
- Army personnel
- 13,200#105 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 3,000#93 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 0#113 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 117#66 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 10#78 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 17#39 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 51#65 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 4#64 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 242#55 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 90#39 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 72#73 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 82#43 of 145
Finance
- Military spending
- $2.8 billion#58 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 2.8%#36 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $125.8 billion#80 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Serbia military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Serbia grew by 219% between 2010 and 2025, from $872 million to $2.8 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 2.8% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Serbia
Branches and forces
Serbian Armed Forces (Vojska Srbije, VS): Army (aka Land Forces; includes Riverine Component, consisting of a naval flotilla on the Danube), Air and Air Defense Forces, Serbian Guard Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs: Police Directorate (2025)
Personnel
approximately 25,000 active-duty Armed Forces (15,000 Land Forces; 5,000 Air/Air Defense; 5,000 other, including Serbian Guard) (2025)
Service age and conscription
18 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women; conscription abolished in 2011 (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory consists of a mix of Soviet/Cold War-era and some more modern weapons systems from suppliers such as China, France, and Russia; Serbia has a defense industry focused on armored vehicles, artillery systems, and munitions (2025)
Deployments abroad
180 Lebanon (UNIFIL) (2025)
Good to know
the Serbian military is responsible for defense and deterrence against external threats, supporting international peacekeeping operations, and providing support to civil authorities for internal security; specific areas of concerns for the military include ethnic and religious extremism, separatism, and deepening international recognition of Kosovo; Serbia has cooperated with NATO since 2006, when it joined the Partnership for Peace program, and the military trains with NATO countries, particularly other Balkan states; Serbia has participated in EU peacekeeping missions, as well as missions under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the UN; it traditionally has maintained close security ties with Russia and has a growing security relationship with China the modern Serbian military was established in 2006 but traces its origins back through World War II, World War I, the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, and the Bulgarian-Serb War of 1885 to the First (1804-1813) and Second (1815-1817) Uprisings against the Ottoman Empire (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 2.5% · 2023: 2.4% · 2022: 2.2% · 2021: 2.2% · 2020: 2%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Serbia compared with its neighbours
| Country | Strength rank | Military spending |
|---|---|---|
| Serbia | #58 | $2.8 billion |
 Romania | #47 | $9.7 billion |
 Kosovo | #134 | $235 million |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina | #133 | $231 million |
 Bulgaria | #59 | $2.6 billion |
 Croatia | #69 | $2.1 billion |
 Hungary | #54 | $5.0 billion |
 Montenegro | #128 | $177 million |
 North Macedonia | #108 | $375 million |