Military profile
Slovakia Military Strength
Slovakia ranks #67 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 13,000 active personnel. It spent $3.1 billion on its military in 2025 (2.0% of GDP).
Slovakia armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 13,000#114 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 0#84 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 0#113 of 145
- Army personnel
- 6,500#129 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 3,200#92 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 0#113 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 48#91 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 10#78 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 21#93 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 0#79 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 30#104 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 41#63 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 9#102 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 25#68 of 145
Finance
- Military spending
- $3.1 billion#55 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 2.0%#60 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $165.6 billion#71 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Slovakia military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Slovakia grew by 174% between 2010 and 2025, from $1.1 billion to $3.1 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 2.0% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Slovakia
Branches and forces
Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic (Ozbrojene Sily Slovenskej Republiky): Ground Forces (Slovenské Pozemné Sily), Air Forces (Slovenské Vzdušné Sily), Special Operations Forces (Sily Pre Speciálne Operácie) Ministry of Interior: Slovak Police Force (SPF or Policajný Zbor) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 17,000 active-duty military personnel (2025)
Service age and conscription
minimum age is 18 for voluntary service for men and women; citizens 18-65 can volunteer for the military reserves (2026)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory is a mix of domestically produced, Soviet-era, and more modern/NATO-compatible armaments from suppliers such as Germany and the US (2025)
Deployments abroad
200 Cyprus (UNFICYP); up to 150 Latvia (NATO) (2025)
Good to know
the Slovak military is responsible for external defense and fulfilling Slovakia’s commitments to European and international security; Slovakia has been a member of both the EU and NATO since 2004; a key focus of the Slovak military is fulfilling the country’s security responsibilities to NATO, including modernizing and acquiring NATO-compatible equipment, participating in training exercises, and providing forces for security missions such as NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence in the Baltic States; since 2022, Slovakia has hosted a multinational NATO ground force battlegroup as part of the NATO effort to boost the defenses of Eastern Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine; Slovakia also contributes to EU and UN peacekeeping missions the Slovak Air Force has only a handful of fighter aircraft and is assisted by NATO’s air policing mission over Slovakia, which includes fighter aircraft from Czechia and Poland; in 2022, Slovakia signed a defense agreement with the US that allows the US to use two Slovak military air bases (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2025: 2% · 2024: 2% · 2023: 1.8% · 2022: 1.8% · 2021: 1.7%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Hungary
Poland
Czechia
Austria
Ukraine