MilitaryCompare / United Kingdom vs Australia
United Kingdom vs Australia
The United Kingdom ranks #5 and Australia ranks #20 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. The United Kingdom spends $89.0B on defense with 141K active personnel; Australia spends $35.3B with 59K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #5 | Global Rank | #20 |
| $89.0B | Defense Budget | $35.3B |
| 2.4% | Budget % of GDP | 1.9% |
| $4.00T | GDP | $1.80T |
| 69.49M | Population | 27.61M |
| Personnel | ||
| 141K | Active Personnel | 59K |
| 70K | Reserve Personnel | 21K |
| 0 | Paramilitary | 0 |
| Air | ||
| 593 | Military Aircraft | 326 |
| 172 | Combat Aircraft | 96 |
| 171 | Fighter Jets | 96 |
| 47 | 5th Gen Fighters | 72 |
| 1 | Bombers | 0 |
| 218 | Helicopters | 50 |
| 72 | Attack Helicopters | 0 |
| 12 | Military Drones (UAV) | 20 |
| Land | ||
| 285 | Main Battle Tanks | 46 |
| 526 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 0 |
| 2,750 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 1,219 |
| 166 | Artillery Systems | 62 |
| Naval | ||
| 10 | Submarines | 6 |
| 10 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 2 | Aircraft Carriers | 0 |
| 0 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 2 |
| Strategic | ||
| 225 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 1 | Ballistic Missile Systems | — |
| 0 | ICBM Systems | — |
| 2 | Cruise Missile Systems | — |
| 0 | Hypersonic Systems | — |
| 12,000 km | Longest Missile Range | — |
The United Kingdom leads in 18 of the 21 measured categories, Australia in 3. 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.