MilitaryCompare / United Kingdom vs France
United Kingdom vs France
The United Kingdom ranks #5 and France ranks #9 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. The United Kingdom spends $89.0B on defense with 141K active personnel; France spends $68.0B with 204K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #5 | Global Rank | #9 |
| $89.0B | Defense Budget | $68.0B |
| 2.4% | Budget % of GDP | 2.0% |
| $4.00T | GDP | $3.37T |
| 69.49M | Population | 68.72M |
| Personnel | ||
| 141K | Active Personnel | 204K |
| 70K | Reserve Personnel | 38K |
| 0 | Paramilitary | 127K |
| Air | ||
| 593 | Military Aircraft | 769 |
| 172 | Combat Aircraft | 253 |
| 171 | Fighter Jets | 201 |
| 47 | 5th Gen Fighters | 0 |
| 1 | Bombers | 52 |
| 218 | Helicopters | 148 |
| 72 | Attack Helicopters | 0 |
| 12 | Military Drones (UAV) | 22 |
| Land | ||
| 285 | Main Battle Tanks | 246 |
| 526 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 627 |
| 2,750 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 466 |
| 166 | Artillery Systems | 84 |
| Naval | ||
| 10 | Submarines | 9 |
| 10 | Nuclear Submarines | 9 |
| 2 | Aircraft Carriers | 1 |
| 0 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 3 |
| Strategic | ||
| 225 | Nuclear Warheads | 370 |
| 1 | Ballistic Missile Systems | 1 |
| 0 | ICBM Systems | 0 |
| 2 | Cruise Missile Systems | 6 |
| 0 | Hypersonic Systems | 0 |
| 12,000 km | Longest Missile Range | 8,000 km |
The United Kingdom leads in 13 of the 24 measured categories, France 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.