Military profile
Sweden Military Strength
Sweden ranks #37 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 16,000 active personnel. It spent $16.5 billion on its military in 2025 (2.5% of GDP).
Sweden armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 16,000#107 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 0#84 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 22,000#50 of 145
- Army personnel
- 7,000#126 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 3,000#93 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 2,100#79 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 205#46 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 71#31 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 53#63 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 0#79 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 121#77 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 48#57 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 0#107 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 0#98 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 0#56 of 113
- Corvettes
- 7#10 of 113
- Submarines
- 5#23 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 298#1 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 9#15 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $16.5 billion#24 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 2.5%#42 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $524.8 billion#39 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Sweden military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Sweden grew by 180% between 2010 and 2025, from $5.9 billion to $16.5 billion (current US dollars), and stood at 2.5% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Sweden
Branches and forces
Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten): Army, Navy, Air Force, Home Guard (202)
Personnel
approximately 25,000 active military personnel; approximately 21,000 Home Guard (2025)
Service age and conscription
18 years of age for voluntary and selective conscripted service for men and women; conscript service obligation typically 9-15 months depending on the branch of service and position, with a reserve commitment up to age 45 (2026)
Equipment and suppliers
the SAF's inventory is comprised of mostly domestically produced armaments alongside smaller amounts of imported Western systems; Sweden's defense industry produces a range of air, land, and naval systems, including armored vehicles, combat aircraft, and submarines; it also produces weapons systems jointly with other countries (2025)
Deployments abroad
approximately 600 Latvia (NATO) (2025)
Good to know
the Swedish military is responsible for deterrence and the defense of the country and its territories against armed attack, supporting Sweden’s national security interests, providing societal support, such as humanitarian aid, and contributing to international peacekeeping and peacemaking operations; the military has a relatively small active duty force that is designed to be rapidly mobilized in a crisis with a trained reserve and a Home Guard Sweden maintained a policy of military non-alignment for over 200 years before applying for NATO membership in May 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine; it became a NATO member in March 2024; prior to membership, Stockholm joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and contributed to NATO-led missions, including those in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo; the military cooperates closely with the forces of other Nordic countries through the Nordic Defense Cooperation (NORDEFCO; established 2009), which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden; Sweden is a signatory of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) and contributes to CSDP missions and operations, including EU battlegroups; it also participates in UN-led missions; Sweden has close bilateral security relations with some individual NATO member states, particularly Finland, Germany, Norway, the UK, and the US (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2025: 2.5% · 2024: 2.3% · 2023: 1.7% · 2022: 1.5% · 2021: 1.4%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Norway
Finland