Military Strength by Country: Data Board

Rank	Country	Population	Active	Reserve	Aircraft	Tanks	Navy	Subs	Budget	Drones	Nuclear

Ranked by the Global Firepower 2026 PowerIndex, which combines more than 60 factors.

Active and Reserve: military personnel. Aircraft and Tanks: units available for operations, after Global Firepower’s readiness adjustment. Navy: total naval assets. Subs: submarines. Budget: annual defence budget.

Drones: estimated military drones (combat, surveillance and tactical), from WORLDOSTATS, based on open-source data to mid-2025. Nuclear: estimated warheads, Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

Nuclear warheads by country

For context, see our report on Nuclear Weapons.

First use: the country reserves the right to use nuclear weapons first. · No first use: it pledges never to be the first to use them. · Not stated: it keeps its policy deliberately ambiguous.

A nuclear bomb needs a delivery method.

There are 3 main ways: from the air (a plane drops a bomb or fires a missile), from land (a missile fired from the ground), or from the sea (a missile fired from a ship or submarine).

A country that can do all 3 has a nuclear triad.

● Has capability ◔ In development – None known

Some of the newest delivery methods being developed are:

An HGV (Hypersonic Glide Vehicle) is first lifted up by a rocket, then breaks away and glides down to its target at high speed, changing direction to evade air defences.
An AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) is a robot submarine that can travel long distances on its own to deliver a nuclear warhead.

* France announced in March 2026 that it would stop publishing warhead figures; 290 is the last published number.

North Korea’s figure is an FAS estimate with significant uncertainty.

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