Bundeswehr: The most powerful armies in Europe and worldwide

The new federal government has a lot of work to do: The decades-long security policy certainty that NATO, and above all the USA, would ensure Europe's security in the long term and reliably, has been over with the election of Donald Trump (78). What happens next? Where will the new negotiations between Trump and the Russian aggressor Vladimir Putin lead?

The discussion is that Europe should defend itself and Ukraine along with it. Nevertheless, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (44) stressed in his first appearance before NATO in February that the demand that Europeans should ensure the conventional security of their continent should not be understood as the USA leaving NATO. Rather, it is a matter of a division of labor.

The management consultancy EY and DekaBank conclude in a study that Increasing defence spending to 3 percent alone would require an additional increase in annual spending of 65 billion euros for the European NATO countries. This would create an additional 660,000 jobs in Europe, as European companies in particular would benefit from new orders.

But what does the balance of power look like at the moment? The US Global Firepower Index provides an overview of the European NATO states and their defense spending, how many soldiers they have or could have, how many tanks and submarines they have and how big their air force is. The non-EU country Great Britain is clearly in the lead, followed by France, Italy and Germany.

The fact that Germany is only given a defense budget of 50 billion dollars in the index is probably due to the fact that the special fund announced by former Chancellor Olaf Scholz (60) is not formally included in the defense budget. In addition, only part of this special fund has been spent so far, as can be seen from the former government's response to a small inquiry from the CDU in January 2025. According to this, between the establishment of the special fund for the Bundeswehr and the end of January 2025, expenditure of around 23.6 billion euros has been made. This includes interest payments and borrowings on the money and capital markets.

According to the budget plan from January 2024, the 2024 defense budget provided for a sum of 51.95 billion euros , with a further 20 billion euros to be added from the special fund. With the 72 billion euros, the NATO quota of 2.1 percent has been met, the former government said. The 100 billion euro special fund is to be fully allocated by the end of 2027, it is also said. What will happen after that is still unclear. With a view to the 2 percent target, however, a funding gap of 30 billion euros would arise from 2028, the CDU has criticized in the past.

The demands go much further. A NATO quota of 3.5 to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), as demanded by Trump, has long been on the table. Based on Germany's estimated GDP of around 4.3053 trillion euros in 2024, 3.5 percent would amount to around 150.69 billion euros, and 5 percent would mean around 215.27 billion euros per year. This would bring Germany close to China's current spending, which, according to the US website Global Firepower Index, has set aside around 266.85 billion dollars for its defense, with a GDP of an estimated 18.80 trillion dollars in 2024.

The table of countries with the most powerful armies in the world clearly shows that the USA (GDP forecast for 2024 at $29 trillion) spends by far the most money on its defense. All European NATO members together do not even reach half of the US budget.

At the top of the ranking of the most powerful armies in the world, there has been little change compared to last year. The USA is the undisputed number one, followed by Russia , China and India. Germany ranks 14th in Global Firepower this year, up five places compared to 2024. France has also made up a few places, moving up from eleventh to seventh place. If you look at the defense budget alone, China, Russia, India and Great Britain follow the USA with 895 billion dollars. Germany, on the other hand, has fallen from seventh to eleventh place.

The online platform Global Firepower uses data from Militaryfactory.com, a website of the Library of US Congress . More than 60 statistical indicators are included in the Global Firepower index. 145 countries are currently being evaluated. The criteria include, for example, the number and operational capability of tanks, warships, helicopters, aircraft and submarines. The financial resources of the individual countries, the number of personnel in the armies and the number of able-bodied people living in the respective country are also analyzed. Geographical conditions are also used for the evaluation.

The exact sources used by the Library of US Congress are not listed. The quality of the equipment or the quality of the soldiers' training are also not taken into account. The number of nuclear warheads also plays no role in the ranking, with the argument that only the categories of a conventional war are being evaluated. The "Military Balance 2025" from the British think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) offers slightly different data. According to this, Germany, for example, has 313 tanks, Russia only 2900 and France 200, as "Spiegel" breaks down in a graphic.