MilitaryCompare / France vs Iran
France vs Iran
France ranks #9 and Iran ranks #18 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. France spends $68.0B on defense with 204K active personnel; Iran spends $7.4B with 610K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #9 | Global Rank | #18 |
| $68.0B | Defense Budget | $7.4B |
| 2.0% | Budget % of GDP | 2.1% |
| $3.37T | GDP | $363B |
| 68.72M | Population | 92.42M |
| Personnel | ||
| 204K | Active Personnel | 610K |
| 38K | Reserve Personnel | 350K |
| 127K | Paramilitary | 40K |
| Air | ||
| 769 | Military Aircraft | 1,402 |
| 253 | Combat Aircraft | 245 |
| 201 | Fighter Jets | 213 |
| 0 | 5th Gen Fighters | 0 |
| 52 | Bombers | 0 |
| 148 | Helicopters | 124 |
| 0 | Attack Helicopters | 11 |
| 22 | Military Drones (UAV) | 750 |
| Land | ||
| 246 | Main Battle Tanks | 1,513 |
| 627 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 610 |
| 466 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 640 |
| 84 | Artillery Systems | 3,798 |
| Naval | ||
| 9 | Submarines | 4 |
| 9 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 1 | Aircraft Carriers | 0 |
| 3 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 0 |
| Strategic | ||
| 370 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 1 | Ballistic Missile Systems | 9 |
| 0 | ICBM Systems | 0 |
| 6 | Cruise Missile Systems | 3 |
| 0 | Hypersonic Systems | 1 |
| 8,000 km | Longest Missile Range | 3,000 km |
France leads in 14 of the 25 measured categories, Iran in 11. Numbers alone do not decide a war: training, logistics, geography, alliances and nuclear deterrence matter too. A dash means the source publishes no figure.
Sources: CSIS Missile Threat, Federation of American Scientists, IISS Military Balance, Military Atlas Index, SIPRI, Wikipedia, Wikipedia / FlightGlobal, World Bank.