MilitaryCompare / Russia vs South Korea
Russia vs South Korea
Russia ranks #3 and South Korea ranks #6 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. Russia spends $190B on defense with 1.26M active personnel; South Korea spends $47.8B with 450K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #3 | Global Rank | #6 |
| $190B | Defense Budget | $47.8B |
| 7.5% | Budget % of GDP | 2.6% |
| $2.56T | GDP | $1.87T |
| 143.51M | Population | 51.68M |
| Personnel | ||
| 1.26M | Active Personnel | 450K |
| 1.50M | Reserve Personnel | 3.10M |
| 569K | Paramilitary | 14K |
| Air | ||
| 4,193 | Military Aircraft | 1,713 |
| 1,886 | Combat Aircraft | 637 |
| 1,211 | Fighter Jets | 387 |
| 29 | 5th Gen Fighters | 40 |
| 118 | Bombers | 0 |
| 1,532 | Helicopters | 532 |
| 577 | Attack Helicopters | 147 |
| 0 | Military Drones (UAV) | 10 |
| Land | ||
| 3,550 | Main Battle Tanks | 1,826 |
| 1,958 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 499 |
| 4,727 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 3,110 |
| 2,902 | Artillery Systems | 5,735 |
| Naval | ||
| 56 | Submarines | 20 |
| 37 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 1 | Aircraft Carriers | 0 |
| 0 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 2 |
| Strategic | ||
| 5,420 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 12 | Ballistic Missile Systems | 3 |
| 5 | ICBM Systems | 0 |
| 7 | Cruise Missile Systems | 6 |
| 3 | Hypersonic Systems | 0 |
| 16,000 km | Longest Missile Range | 1,500 km |
Russia leads in 22 of the 27 measured categories, South Korea in 5. 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.