MilitaryCompare / South Korea vs Iran
South Korea vs Iran
South Korea ranks #6 and Iran ranks #18 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. South Korea spends $47.8B on defense with 450K active personnel; Iran spends $7.4B with 610K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #6 | Global Rank | #18 |
| $47.8B | Defense Budget | $7.4B |
| 2.6% | Budget % of GDP | 2.1% |
| $1.87T | GDP | $363B |
| 51.68M | Population | 92.42M |
| Personnel | ||
| 450K | Active Personnel | 610K |
| 3.10M | Reserve Personnel | 350K |
| 14K | Paramilitary | 40K |
| Air | ||
| 1,713 | Military Aircraft | 1,402 |
| 637 | Combat Aircraft | 245 |
| 387 | Fighter Jets | 213 |
| 40 | 5th Gen Fighters | 0 |
| 0 | Bombers | 0 |
| 532 | Helicopters | 124 |
| 147 | Attack Helicopters | 11 |
| 10 | Military Drones (UAV) | 750 |
| Land | ||
| 1,826 | Main Battle Tanks | 1,513 |
| 499 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 610 |
| 3,110 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 640 |
| 5,735 | Artillery Systems | 3,798 |
| Naval | ||
| 20 | Submarines | 4 |
| 0 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 0 | Aircraft Carriers | 0 |
| 2 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 0 |
| Strategic | ||
| 0 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 3 | Ballistic Missile Systems | 9 |
| 0 | ICBM Systems | 0 |
| 6 | Cruise Missile Systems | 3 |
| 0 | Hypersonic Systems | 1 |
| 1,500 km | Longest Missile Range | 3,000 km |
South Korea leads in 15 of the 22 measured categories, Iran in 7. 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.