Military profile
Spain Military Strength
Spain ranks #21 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 120,000 active personnel. It spent $40.2 billion on its military in 2025 (2.1% of GDP).
Spain armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 120,000#39 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 15,000#64 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 80,000#26 of 145
- Army personnel
- 76,000#48 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 23,000#29 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 21,000#30 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 517#23 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 140#18 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 12#42 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 126#29 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 23#31 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 327#45 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 96#38 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 140#57 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 0#98 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 11#12 of 113
- Corvettes
- 0#47 of 113
- Submarines
- 2#34 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 23#42 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 6#22 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $40.2 billion#15 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 2.1%#55 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $1.71 trillion#16 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Spain military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Spain grew by 104% between 2010 and 2025, from $19.7 billion to $40.2 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 2.1% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Spain
Branches and forces
Spanish Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas de España): Army (Ejército de Tierra), Spanish Navy (Armada Espanola; includes Marine Corps), Air and Space Force (Ejército del Aire y del Espacio), Emergency Response Unit (Unidad Militar de Emergencias); Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) Ministry of the Interior: Spanish National Police (Cuerpo Nacional de Policía, CNP) (2025)
Personnel
approximately 120,000 active-duty military personnel; approximately 80,000 Guardia Civil (2025)
Service age and conscription
18 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women (upper age limits depend on branch of service, roles, specialties, etc); 24-36 month initial obligation; no conscription, but the Spanish Government retains the right to mobilize citizens 19-25 years of age in a national emergency; 18-58 for the voluntary reserves (2026)
Equipment and suppliers
the military's inventory is comprised of weapons and equipment that were produced domestically, co-produced with or imported from other European countries, or acquired from the US; key suppliers of major armaments include Germany and the US; Spain's defense industry manufactures land, air, and sea weapons systems and is integrated within the European defense-industrial sector (2025)
Deployments abroad
Spain has up to 3,000 military personnel deployed on 17 missions supporting the EU, NATO, and the UN on four continents, as well as naval missions in the Mediterranean and the seas off the Horn of Africa; its largest deployments are up to 700 troops in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and about 1,700 personnel in Eastern Europe supporting NATO missions in Latvia, Romania, and Slovakia (2025)
Good to know
the Spanish military has a wide range of responsibilities, including protecting the country’s national interests, sovereignty, and territory, providing support during natural disasters, and fulfilling Spain’s responsibilities to European and international security; it maintains garrisons in the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla, conducts operations worldwide, and participates in a variety of EU-, NATO-, and UN-led missions; Spain joined NATO in 1982 and is fully integrated into the NATO structure; it routinely conducts exercises with NATO (and EU) partners, and hosts one of NATO’s two combined air operations centers the Spanish military's history goes back to the 13th century; the Army has an infantry regiment, formed in the 13th century, that is considered the oldest still active military unit in the Western world; the Marine Corps, which traces its roots back to 1537, is the oldest naval infantry force in the world; Spain created a Spanish Legion for foreigners in 1920, but early on the Legion was primarily filled by native Spaniards due to difficulties in recruiting foreigners, and most of its foreign members were from the Republic of Cuba; it was modeled after the French Foreign Legion and its purpose was to provide a corps of professional troops to fight in Spain's colonial campaigns in North Africa; in more recent years, it has been used in NATO peacekeeping deployments; today’s Legion includes a mix of native Spaniards and foreigners with Spanish residency (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2025: 2% · 2024: 1.4% · 2023: 1.2% · 2022: 1.1% · 2021: 1%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
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